POPPIES

Poppies Context

Jane Weir Born 1963

In 2009, the poet Carol Ann Duffy (author or War Photographer) asked other poets to contribute to a collection on the impact of war on people left behind, to try to present the human consequences on wars. Consider Wilfred Owen's mother hearing of her son's death in a telegram delivered as the bells signalling the end of WW1 rang out. Weir lived in Northern Ireland during the troubles in the 1980s. She also had two teenage sons when she wrote this poem.

Poppies - Analysis

Three days before Armistice Sunday

The opening positions the poem firmly in time. But there are at least three different times referred to in the poem. The present, the departure of her son for war, and the departure of her son for school. All of these seem to merge in the speaker's mind.

released a songbird from its cage.

After the military language, used to describe a domestic scene, there is a poetuic image of the mother releasing a bird, signifying either freedom or death.

your playground voice catching in the wind.

By the end, the speaker arrives at the war memorial and, in a very emotive moment, she hears the echo of her son's childhood voice in the wind.