The natural image suggests beauty and happiness. This is in contrast to Plath’s anguish in the poem. Repetition of little trivialises Plath’s anguish. It can also be a term of affection. Poppies in July By Sylvia Plath   Little poppies, little hell flames, Do you do no harm? You flicker. I cannot touch you. I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns And it exhausts me to watch you Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth. A mouth just bloodied. Little bloody skirts! There are fumes I cannot touch. Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules? If I could bleed, or sleep!  If my mouth could marry a hurt like that! Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule, Dulling and stilling. But colorless. Colorless. Plath associates the poppies with evil and suffering. The colour of the flames reflects the poppies. Rhetorical question shows lack of feeling. Lack of pain despite flickering attack. She is tired of what’s going on. Negative aging. Sensual, physical. From sensual to violent. Violence directed to the poppies and affair. She longs for the poppies drug, opium, for relief. She would put up with the pain of opium for relief. She feels removed from the world. She wants to feel the experience of the opium. This contradicts the colour of the poppies and emphasises the emptiness of how she feels.

The title and content of the poem are in contrast to one another, while the title suggests a natural image the speaker does not refer to their natural beauty but rather their representation of her inner turmoil. Therefore the title is misleading, as it suggests a joyful poem about the natural beauty associated with summer. The poem in my opinion is concerned with the speaker’s inner turmoil. The voice of the speaker is clearly troubled. The initial metaphor sets the tone for the dark, bleak poem that follows, ‘Little poppies, little hell flames’. In her opinion, the flowers are associated with evil. She further develops the idea of evil by developing the image of fire ‘flickering’. As the flowers are moving, she feels that they are alight and burning. She believes it resembles a flickering fire. There is clever use of metaphor, comparing the poppies to ‘hell flames’, suggesting death, suffering and pain. She uses this image to reveal her own ability to self-harm and the lack of feeling or pain she encounters despite their ‘flickering’. She appears to watch them so closely it ‘exhausts’ her. The poet goes on to develop another startling/shocking image that of ‘A mouth just bloodied’, we the reader feel shocked and uncomfortable by this suggestion of physical violence. It is obvious that the poppies only have negative connotations. She compares them to ‘Little bloody skirts’. She contrasts their natural beauty with violence and bloodshed. It is a difficult thing for the reader to comprehend. Once she has discussed how they look and how she sees them she moves on to the drug produced by them (opium). The speaker longs to feel the effect of the tranquillising drug ‘opiates, your nauseous capsules?’ The speaker reveals her level of despair and longing for some freedom from the world she inhabits. She is aware of the ‘nauseous’ affects but is willing to overcome these in order to have escape. She needs to escape her mental turmoil and would rather ‘If I could bleed or sleep’. The speaker feels as if she needs to experience pain in order to escape from her miserable existence ‘If my mouth could marry a hurt like that’. She reveals her feelings of isolation from the world through the ‘glass capsule’, at this point, we are aware of her level of confinement. She wants to experience the ‘dulling and stilling’ properties of opium. She wishes to experience a ‘colorless’ world in stark contrast to the brightly coloured poppies. The final lines of the poem are ironic, there is a close link between sleep and death and therefore could be interpreted as a wish for death.

Struggles against herself and the world ‘Poppies in July’ THEMES Struggles against herself and the world Apathy Depression Nature IMAGES Poppies in July Hell flames Nothing burns Exhausts me A mouth just bloodied Little bloodied skirt Glass capsule Colorless, colorless.

‘Poppies in July’ What is the speaker’s state of mind? Describe the flowers. Why does the poet put her hands among the flames? What does she expect to happen and how does she feel when ‘Nothing burns’? Why can she not touch the flames? What can this mean? ‘Little hell flames’. Do you think this line is effective? Why does she repeat the word ‘colourless’ in the last line? Why does Plath write in couplets but leave the last line on its own? What do you believe is the strongest image in the poem? Explain your choice. ‘If only I could disappear’. What do you think she means?