Poppies (Jane Weir poem) Essay Questions

How does perspective function in the poem?

By making the first-person speaker a mother, Weir sheds light on an under-explored aspect of the human experience in British war poetry: the female perspective. The poem occupies the perspective of this mother as she prepares to send her son to war. All observations and emotions are filtered directly through her perspective, as she is the speaker. The reader sees her direct evaluations of herself (for example, Line 18 states “I was brave”) as well as her intentions, such as her suppressed desire to play Eskimos with her son or touch his hair. By centering the mother’s unique perspective and attitude, Weir leads the reader to consider women’s experiences of war.

The first-person perspective also allows Weir to create deliberate ambiguity. For example, it is unclear whether the “songbird” that the speaker releases in the third stanza is a literal bird that the son kept as a pet, or a symbolic representation of the mother releasing her previously concealed emotion after her son left home. Similarly, the mother does not state, but only implies, that her son is leaving for war. The first-person perspective lends itself to this ambiguity because it allows the speaker to reveal or conceal information according to their own ability to perceive and their subjective intentions.

"Poppies" also makes use of the second person address, giving the poem an epistolary quality. An epistolary poem is read as a letter or conversation. While “Poppies” does not have the formal qualities of a letter such as an address or salutation, the use of first and second person evokes a direct conversation between the mother and son. This creates an intimate and direct dialogue that contributes to the thematic exploration of the relationship between parents and children. The second person further contributes to the ambiguity noted above, as the mother assumes that her child will understand the unsaid context, such as where the child is going. This creates the impression that the reader is witnessing a direct conversation or letter between the mother and son, entering their inner world.

What does this poem tell us about the mother and her emotions?

Although the poem is about seeing a son go to war, it is also about the process of letting your children go. Throughout the poem the mother is getting her son ready to leave for a tour of duty in the same way that she had gotten him ready for his first day at school. Although she knows that he is now an adult, she still feels that he is her little boy. This is reinforced throughout the poem by references to markers of the boy's childhood: the "Eskimos" game that the mother and her child played as well as the "playground voice" that the mother wishes to hear. These references infuse the poem with a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past, which contrasts with the son's excitement and even "intoxica[tion]" with the outside world.

The poem also demonstrates the mother's feelings of powerlessness because she can't protect her son anymore. When her son was a child, he was more akin to the symbolic caged bird which the mother frees from his bedroom. His environment was more restricted, but he was safe and protected. The mother and home acted as this cage, working to shield the son from danger. She knows that she cannot do this now that he is in a hostile environment, and this both saddens and scares her.

How does form contribute to the poem?

The poem is structured in free verse (lacking a set rhyme scheme) with stanzas of varying length. This structure gives the poem an informal, stream-of-consciousness mood, which contributes to the sense that the reader is accessing the mother’s inner thoughts and perspective. The lack of a formal rhyme scheme, coupled with the frequent use of enjambment, creates the impression that the mother is pouring out her thoughts and emotions or writing them in a letter to her son, particularly given the use of the second person. Free verse also removes the “artificiality” of more traditional poetry; that is, the reader is not as reminded of the author’s presence in the poem, because the poetry does not conform to any expected scheme. This creates a more immediate experience, as the reader can examine the mother’s emotions without any artificial restraints from rhyme or meter.

Free verse is also a hallmark of contemporary poetry, which often eschews traditional, formal rhyme structures. This assists Weir in creating a poem that feels contemporary and aligns with Carol Ann Duffy’s call for modern war poetry. The structure gives a subtly modern feel to a poem in which the subject matter and themes remain classic and universal.