1. Lonely without them
angry
upset
hope
proud
On your poppy write down five feelings a mother would go through when their son goes to war.

2. AO3- Context
Weir lived in N. Ireland in the 1980s during the Troubles (like Heaney Storm on the Island). So she has seen the impact of conflict on home life.
She was a textile designer so there is a lot of imagery to reflect that.
She is a mother to two sons. She wanted to show the viewpoint of a mother.

3. This poem shoes two types of conflict
Power and Conflict
This poem shoes two types of conflict
Mother wanting to keep son
Son wanting freedom and to grow up 1.
Home and domestic life
War 2.

4. Let’s read the poem
Look out for any images to do with textiles This shows how the mother is trying to keep a normal domestic home life but can’t against war. UNDERLINE THEM Look out for any images of conflict e.g. “blockade” line 5 means a line of soldiers who make a defence against the enemy. CIRCLE THEM

5. AO2 STRUCTURE Dramatic Monologue
Where one person speaks in first person “I”
Who’s perspective is it?
Who is the focus on?
Why?

6. AO2 STRUCTURE
2. Enjambment 3. Free Verse 4. Ceasura 5. Stanzas of different sizes
Chaotic impact of conflict on those who were trying to carry on at home.

7. Words that link to war and pain
Tricky Words:
Lapel- a collar
Flashback to the day her son leaves.
Three days before Armistice Sunday and poppies had already been placed on individual war graves. Before your left, I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer.
She pins the poppy onto his yellow blazer and the red poppy disrupts the yellow
Words that link to war and pain

8. Can you find words or ideas that link to home life?
Tricky Words:
impulse- an urge
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.
She tries to not cry. She becomes “steel” - hard
She wants to hold onto their love and bond when he was a little boy.
Metaphor- his pieces of hair are gelled black thorns. Shows he has grown up and the thorn makes him seem like he is hard to touch now he is older.
Can you find words or ideas that link to home life?

9. Verb “threw” Aggressive, sudden breaking of boundaries
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 songbird from its cages. 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.
This simile shows the son’s perspective. War had potential it was exciting
Means drunk. Like he made his decision in the excitement of it all
Could mean she released her screaming and crying. Or the bird is a metaphor for him being released from the cage of home
Structure- her son has left. What do you notice about the sentences now he has gone?
Triple of verbs to do with sewing. Her motherly role.
He has no coat or gloves on outside- she is open to the cold and pain.

10. Inscription- writing/engraving
Top of the hill could be metaphor for the peak of her pain climbing the mountain she has had to go through
Tricky Words:
Inscription- writing/engraving
Alliteration of “h” sound like her breathing in.
She is desperate to hear his childhood voice.
Just names but to mothers and families they are people
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 in the wind.
Idea of the dove again, either to show he is dead or is free from mother.
She is at a war memorial- link back to first stanza about the poppies on war graves

11. Language where home blends with war

12. Language where home blends with war
“graze my nose”
an injury from war

13. Language where home blends with war
an injury
“Sellotape bandaged around my hand”

14. Language where home blends with war
a group of soldiers to help
“reinforcements of scarf and gloves”