Poetry Across Time

Conflict

Introduce
Poppies
By Jane Weir

Establish
 Poppies
By Jane Weir

Jane Weir is an Anglo-Italian writer, designer and editor

who grew up in Manchester and Northern Italy. She lived in
Belfast for several years before moving back to England.
'Poppies' was published in the selection of contemporary war
poetry commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy for the Guardian in
July 2009. She calls 'Poppies' a contemporary war poem
about war in its various guises.

"I wanted to write a poem from the point of view of a mother

and her relationship with her son, a child who was loved
cherished and protected… and it had led to this…. heightened
and absolute fear that parents experience in letting their
children go, the anxiety and ultimately the pain of loss… I
hoped to somehow channel all this, convey it into something
concise and contemporary, but also historically classic, in
terms of universal experience."

Authors's Ideas and Background

Poets, from ancient times, have written about war. It is the
poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness. In modern
times, the young soldiers of the first world war turned the
horrors they endured and witnessed in trench combat - which
slaughtered them in their millions - into a vividly new kind of
poetry, and most of us, when we think of "war poetry" will find
the names of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon coming first
to our lips, with Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg, Rupert
Brooke ... What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ...
There's some corner of a foreign field ... Such lines are part of
the English poetry reader's DNA, injected during schooldays
like a vaccine.

British poets in our early 21st century do not go to war. War,

it seems, makes poets of soldiers and not the other way round.
Today, as most of us do, poets largely experience war -
wherever it rages - through emails or texts from friends or
colleagues in war zones, through radio or newsprint or
television, through blogs or tweets or interviews. With the
official inquiry into Iraq imminent and the war in Afghanistan
returning dead teenagers to the streets of Wootton Bassett, I
invited a range of my fellow poets to bear witness, each in their
own way, to these matters of war.

Carol Ann Duffy How does Jane

(Poet Laureate) Weir bear
witness?

Establish/Discuss
Poppies

Three days before Armistice Sunday

and poppies had already been placed
on individual war graves. Before you left,
I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,
spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade
of yellow bias binding around your blazer.

Sellotape bandaged around my hand,

I rounded up as many white cat hairs
as I could, smoothed down your shirt’s
upturned collar, steeled the softening
of my face. I wanted to graze my nose
across the tip of your nose, play at
being Eskimos like we did when
you were little. I resisted the impulse
to run my fingers through the gelled
blackthorns of your hair. All my words
flattened, rolled, turned into felt,

slowly melting. I was brave, as I walked

with you, to the front door, threw
it open, the world overflowing
like a treasure chest. A split second
and you were away, intoxicated.
After you’d gone I went into your bedroom,
released a song bird from its cage.
Later a single dove flew from the pear tree,
and this is where it has led me,
skirting the church yard walls, my stomach busy
making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less, without
a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves.

On reaching the top of the hill I traced

the inscriptions on the war memorial,
leaned against it like a wishbone.
The dove pulled freely against the sky,
an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear
your playground voice catching on the wind.

JANE WEIR

Poem
 Poppies

Three days before Armistice Sunday

and poppies had already been placed
What language
Ominous reminder on individual war graves. Before you left,
technique is this?
that war kills. I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,
spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade What has it been
used to describe?
She is emotionally of yellow bias binding around your blazer.
wounded and he Representing uniform. School? Army?
Sellotape bandaged around my hand,
might be
I rounded up as many white cat hairs Still treated like a
wounded in war. child.
as I could, smoothed down your shirt’s
upturned collar, steeled the softening What language
of my face. I wanted to graze my nose technique is this?
across the tip of your nose, play at What has it been
Contrast with harsh being Eskimos like we did when
used to describe?
reality. Wishing for you were little. I resisted the impulse
him to be young to run my fingers through the gelled
What language
again, why? blackthorns of your hair. All my words
flattened, rolled, turned into felt,
technique is this?
What has it been
slowly melting. I was brave, as I walked used to describe?
What language with you, to the front door, threw Sudden movement
technique is this? it open, the world overflowing
like a treasure chest. A split second
suggests breaking
What has it
and you were away, intoxicated. a boundary.
been used to
After you’d gone I went into your bedroom, Symbolic of?
describe? released a song bird from its cage.
Later a single dove flew from the pear tree,
Symbolic of? and this is where it has led me, Sewing imagery-
skirting the church yard walls, my stomach busy
nervous feelings
making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less, without
a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves. of anxiety.
Visual image.
Something Reminder of the
small On reaching the top of the hill I traced
risks her
son
the inscriptions on the war memorial,
and beautiful leaned against it like a wishbone. faces.
in a The dove pulled freely against the sky,
vast space. an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear
your playground voice catching on the wind.
Represents?
Links leaving to go to the army with
JANE WEIR leaving to go to school.

Focus Qs
 What is the role of women
during times of conflict?

Consider how the poet makes use of gender

stereotypes within her poem...

Establish/Discuss
Felt Making

‘I applied the technique of felt making to

this poem because it seemed apt to the
process of grief. The slow remembrance
of layering, the think wadding, which over
time creates a density that’s almost
impenetrable, the muffled deadness of What do you think
the texture of felt and its ability to is the importance
denote dumbness, padding and the of this motif?
impossibility of the open expression of
grief, how the felt merges and melts, and
how if one is to grieve one has to, at some
point, allow this to dissolve. And the poem
does this; it breaks when the mother
goes into her son’s empty bedroom.’

Establish/Discuss
Exploring the text:
Clothing and textile language

1 * Find all the references to clothing.

* Why are they used? What are the
associations?

Sensory details
* What sensory details are there in stanza 2?
* Why are they used? What connotations do
they have?

Verbs
* Track the verbs used throughout the poem.
* What do you notice? How do they help to
reveal different emotions?

Skill: Exploring the Text

Endings:

The dove pulled freely against the sky,

an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear

your playground voice catching on the wind.

Reflection...
* Why does the poet refer to
the dove?
* How is Weir making use of
perspective?
Explain your ideas.

Skill: Symbolism
Look at the images below:

Can you find the quotation/idea

that they refer to?
Question Time!

1. Is the poem about war

or a poem about families?
2. How does the title refer to the poem?
3. Why does the mother have so many
feelings of anxiety and fear?
4. Why does the poet use the metaphor of a bird?
5. Do you think the son is still alive?
Explain.

Quick Questions
Agree or Disagree!

Refer to the poem to help explain your ideas.

1. The poem is in the form of a dramatic

monologue (the poet speaks through an
assumed voice or character, a persona, to an implied audience).
2. The poem is an elegy or lament (a poem of mourning, grief or
regret, usually associated with the death of someone).
3. The poet describes the poem as a narrative journey through
memory, and the poem’s structure reflects this.
4. The poet explores the speaker’s emotional journey.
5. The poet makes use of emotive and sensory imagery.

Agree/Disagree
Glory of Women

You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,

Or wounded in a mentionable place.
You worship decorations; you believe
That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.
You make us shells. You listen with delight,
By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.
You crown our distant ardours while we fight,
And mourn our laurelled memories when we're killed.
You can't believe that British troops 'retire'
When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,
Trampling the terrible corpses—blind with blood.
O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud.

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Additional
Links:

About the poet:

[Link]

Poet discusses the poem:

[Link]

Poet reads the poem:

[Link]

Poet talks about her poetry:

[Link]
2005_49_thu_05.shtml

'Exit Wounds':
[Link]
poetry-carol-ann-duffy

Links and References

Pictures into Words
Select of the images below and use them to create your own
piece of creative writing. Consider carefully the perspective
you plan to use...

Additional: Creative Writing