Poppies: Plot and Intentions

What are the key themes in the poem?

• Reality of conflict.

• Effect of conflict / memory / loss.

• Power of nature.

• Power of human.

Who is the speaker in 'Poppies'?

• Daughter

• Soldier

• Son

• Mother

'My stomach making tucks, darts, pleats' implies...

• The speaker is experiencing pain.

• The speaker is wounded.

• The narrator had tailored her speech.

• The mother has anxieties about her son.

What does 'I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your nose' imply about their relationship?

• The speaker is full of remorse.

• Childhood memories indicate the close bond between them.

• There is hostility between them.

• The mother feels betrayed by her son.

What is the key message of the Poppies poem?

• A young child going to school for the first time.

• The indescribable horrors of war.

• War is glorious, honourable and to be praised.

• Absence, loss of a son serving in war from a mothers perspective.

What are the two concepts juxtaposed in the poem?

• Domestic

• Oppression

• Military

• Freedom

Which conflict had just taken place when Jane Weir wrote Poppies?

• The Iraq/Afghanistan War

• The Second Boer War

• World War 2

• The Gulf War

The poem Poppies is written in the form of a narrative by an imagined person. What is the term for this type of poem?

• dramatic monologue

• sonnet

• limerick

• free verse

Whose perspective does Weir want to shine a light on in times of conflict?

• the mother's perspective

• the son's perspective

• the soldier's perspective

• the father's perspective

True or False?

Weir thinks that we should remember people who die in wars as individuals

• True

• False