Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
explore how two poets present the theme of conflict-poppies and remains -…
explore how two poets present the theme of conflict-poppies and remains
Remains
Wrote by Simon Armitage and is about a soldier who gets his first kill where him and 2 others shoot a looter
The poem has a cyclical structure as it ends where it began. The repetition of "Sleep'', and ''he's probably armed, possibly not" shows that the soldier cannot escape his guilt the internal conflict is permanent and inescapable
'''probably armed,possibly not'' shows his inner conflict of not knowing if he fully did the right thing or not
Conflict presented through both physical war and internal psychological battles
The speaker uses the collective pronoun "we" and describes his fellow soldiers simply as "somebody else and somebody else," showing how war dehumanizes people as well as him not wanting to take full responsibility
Looter is shot "a dozen times" and left "sort of inside out" on the ground. The brutality of conflict is further shown when his mate "tosses his guts back into his body" as if he were a piece of meat rather than a human being.
the memory of the event haunts him "His blood-shadow stays on the street... I walk right over it week after week
Poppies
A mother recalls caring for her son and reminisces about his childhood before it is revealed that he is no longer there and it is implied that he has died in conflict
quotes
the world overflowing
like a treasure chest
metaphor creates an image of there being an outpouring of emotion by the narrator.
wanted to graze my nose
across the tip of your nose
The word choice
implies that the
memory also has
painful undertones
Spasms of paper red
Describes the poppy on the son's lapel, linking the symbol of remembrance directly to the violent bodily spasms of injured soldiers
similarities
The psychological impact of losing a son is seen in Poppies through the desire to return to “play at being Eskimos like we did when [he] was little”.
Armitage also explores the psychological effect of losing someone however,
Weir’s narrator wishes to remember, Armitage’s attempts to forget “the image of agony” after killing a man.
This is damaging to both narrators as in Remains, he is unable to “Sleep” or “Dream” and in Poppies the
irregular structure shows her unable to hold herself together.
These memories seem to extend the impact of war for both narrators however, they are more positive and welcomed by Weir’s who sees the sad memories as a chance to remember her son.
Differences
Armitage presents the narrator’s guilt through the harsh repetition of “his bloody life in my bloody hands” as well as the desperate “the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”.
In Poppies, the narrator instead experiences grief which is shown in the declarative “I was brave” and having to “[lean] against it” when seeing the war memorial.
Form: Poppies is written as a dramatic monologue in free verse with heavy enjambment, reflecting the chaotic, flowing nature of a mother’s grief and memories. Remains starts with regular stanzas but breaks down at the end into a two-line stanza, visually mirroring how the soldier's mental state breaks apart under the weight of his guilt.