10.1.3

Imagery

Test yourself

Images of Innocence

Images of innocence in Poppies emphasise the intense love of the mother for her son. It also reminds the reader of the innocence that is corrupted by war.

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Image 1

  • “Sellotape bandaged around my hand, / I rounded up as many white cat hairs / as I could, smoothed down your shirt's / upturned collar”.
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Image 2

  • “I wanted to graze my nose / across the tip of your nose, play at / being Eskimos like we did when you were little”.

Danger

Weir uses these techniques to explore the ideas of the danger of war and children's futures:

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Colour and military imagery

  • “spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade / of yellow bias binding around your blazer.”
  • The colour imagery of “red” and military image of a “blockade” potentially foreshadows the danger that awaits the son.
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Juxtaposition

  • "I resisted the impulse / to run my fingers through the gelled / blackthorns of your hair."
  • The tender image of the mother touching her son is juxtaposed to descriptions of uniform or sharp objects, which remind the reader of the son’s unsafe and uncertain future.

Jump to other topics

1Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

2London - William Blake (1757-1827)

3Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

4Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

5War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)

6My Last Duchess - Robert Browning (1812-1889)

7The Prelude - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

8Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Tennyson

9Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes (1930-1998)

10Poppies - Jane Weir (Born 1963)

11Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker (Born 1954)

12The Emigree - Carol Rumens (Born 1944)

13Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland (Born 1938)

14Checking Out Me History - John Agard (Born 1949)

15Remains - Simon Armitage (Born 1963)

16Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons

16.1Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons

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