Teacher Notes FEELINGS LANG TECH NATURAL IMAGERY NARRATIVEPLACE PATRIOTISM CONSEQUENCES MEMORY PERSPECTIVE PoppiesXXX (loss)X (mother)

Conflict Poetry: Poppies by Jane Weir Learning Objectives: To understand the personal context to ‘Poppies.’ To understand the story and emotions of the poem. To be able to analyse Poppies and share with the class. Key Words: Dramatic Monologue Elegy DO IT NOW What do you take from the picture on your desk? What does it symbolise? Represent? Why or when is it important? Swap so you’ve seen three pictures.

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Your Literature Exam Paper 1 Exploring Modern Texts 90 mins Section A: An Inspector calls 45 min Choice of 2 questions Section B: OMAM 45 mins 1 question with 2 parts Questions are on: Ideas, themes, issues Characterisation Settings

Your Literature Exam Paper 2 Poetry Across Time 75 mins Section A: Conflict Poetry 45 min Section B: Unseen Poetry 30 min

Context: Poppies Learning Objective: To understand public and personal attitudes to war In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; - In Flanders Field (1915)

Context: A Mother’s Perspective (3m08-8m51) Learning Objective: To understand public and personal attitudes to war

Vocabulary bias binding = tuck= dart = pleat =

Themes Consequences/Effects of war Feelings

Reading the Poem 1.Focus on the emotion of this mother. How does she feel? What emotions does she show? 2.Focus on how any of the lines/ideas link to Margaret Evison’s views earlier. I felt wounded (stanza 2) the structures we humans have built to protect ourselves (stanza 2) I took to the garden (stanza 3) The intensities of care and compassion we feel for one another (stanza 1/2) When there is love there will be pain and suffering (stanza 2/4)

Mini Plenary Write one sentence next to each of the 4 stanzas which describes the main event/feeling of the stanza.

Group Challenge You will work in 5 groups. Each group has a particular focus. You will explore this focus. Find relevant techniques (if not mentioned) and analyse – 10 minutes. You will be responsible for presenting this learning point to the rest of the class.

Three days before Armistice Sunday and poppies had already been placed on individual war graves. Before you left, I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer. Sellotape bandaged around my hand, I rounded up as many white cat hairs as I could, smoothed down your shirt’s upturned collar, steeled the softening of my face. I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your nose, play at being Eskimos like we did when you were little. I resisted the impulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair. All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt, slowly melting. I was brave, as I walked with you, to the front door, threw it open, the world overflowing like a treasure chest. A split second and you were away, intoxicated. After you’d gone I went into your bedroom, released a song bird from its cage. Later a single dove flew from the pear tree, and this is where it has led me, skirting the church yard walls, my stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less, without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves. On reaching the top of the hill I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial, leaned against it like a wishbone. The dove pulled freely against the sky, an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind.

Group Challenge Focus = References to Textiles. Key Lines = 6, 17, 28, 29, 34 Why so deliberately use language associated with clothing? What does it emphasise about the speaker? How can the fabrics represent feelings?

Group Challenge Focus = The Mother’s Thoughts/Emotions. Key Lines = 7, 10-16, 17-18, 20-21, 32, 35 How does this mother feel? Does she show it freely? Why or why not? What does she worry her son won’t experience? What does she wish?

Group Challenge Focus = Symbolism. Key Lines = 7, 24, 25, 33 Why choose this colour of hair? What does the song bird represent? What about the cage? Why is it only released now ? Explore associations of the dove.

Group Challenge Focus = Description of the son Key Lines = 5-6, 14-17, 22, 35 Look at the alliteration (the hard B sounds) and the focus on the word BLOCKADE (achieved by enjambment). How is the son behaving? How composed is he? Explore the idea that he has been “intoxicated” What does this mother wish for her son?

Group Challenge Focus = Significance of poppies/memorials Key Lines = 1,2, 4-5, How is the timing of her son going away made worse? Explore how the poppy is being described by her, is it positively? Or like something a bit sharp, dangerous? Why does she visit the memorial?

Plenary: Final Ambiguity “Later a single dove flew from the pear tree and this is where it has led me” How much later is this? Is her son dead or alive? How does this change the potential readings of stanza 4? Evidence: why have it in the same stanza – which timing does that make seem more likely? Evidence: But what overall tense is the poem in – what does that make it seem more like?

Unseen Poetry Practice John McRae, In Flanders’ Fields (1915) In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. How does the poet present the idea of death in this poem?