Explore How Conflict Effects Those Not Fighting in the Conflict Poems
In The Falling Leaves and Poppies, compare the effects conflict has on those not fighting.
In Poppies by Jane Weir and The Falling Leaves by Margaret Postgate Cole both poets use a variety of methods to show effects conflict has on those not fighting. Use of structure and language is important in presenting these effects. This essay will explore both poems to analyse the effects of different methods as implemented by the poets.
The structure used in the poems along with similes and metaphors to describe the soldiers in both poems give a sad, solemn tone, to show how the poet was effected by conflict. The use of enjambment in The Falling Leaves gives the sense of long pauses and broken thoughts and feelings of the poet showing that it saddens the poet to think of hundreds of soldiers losing their lives in war. In Poppies, “All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt, slowly melting.”, is used to show that the feeling of her son leaving to fight in a war was hard to explain and that the words meant nothing as the feeling was too strong to explain in words.
The emotion of the poet is clearly described in both poems. “I resisted the impulse” and “I was brave, as I walked with you”. Both quotes from Poppies show that although the poet felt upset that her son was going to war, and that she felt he was too young, she allowed her son to do as he wanted. This shows realisation that he had grown up, that it wasn’t her decision to allow him to go and that she didn’t want to upset him by showing how she really felt. In The Falling Leaves, the poet describes her emotion through the weather. “like snowflakes wiping out the noon;” this shows that she was feeling saddened and upset from what she had seen.
Both poems describe the soldiers as innocent. For example, in Poppies, the poet’s memories of her son were all those of his youth, showing that he was still an innocent child. In The Falling Leaves soldiers are compared to graceful, white snowflakes. “Like snowflakes
In Poppies by Jane Weir and The Falling Leaves by Margaret Postgate Cole both poets use a variety of methods to show effects conflict has on those not fighting. Use of structure and language is important in presenting these effects. This essay will explore both poems to analyse the effects of different methods as implemented by the poets.
The structure used in the poems along with similes and metaphors to describe the soldiers in both poems give a sad, solemn tone, to show how the poet was effected by conflict. The use of enjambment in The Falling Leaves gives the sense of long pauses and broken thoughts and feelings of the poet showing that it saddens the poet to think of hundreds of soldiers losing their lives in war. In Poppies, “All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt, slowly melting.”, is used to show that the feeling of her son leaving to fight in a war was hard to explain and that the words meant nothing as the feeling was too strong to explain in words.
The emotion of the poet is clearly described in both poems. “I resisted the impulse” and “I was brave, as I walked with you”. Both quotes from Poppies show that although the poet felt upset that her son was going to war, and that she felt he was too young, she allowed her son to do as he wanted. This shows realisation that he had grown up, that it wasn’t her decision to allow him to go and that she didn’t want to upset him by showing how she really felt. In The Falling Leaves, the poet describes her emotion through the weather. “like snowflakes wiping out the noon;” this shows that she was feeling saddened and upset from what she had seen.
Both poems describe the soldiers as innocent. For example, in Poppies, the poet’s memories of her son were all those of his youth, showing that he was still an innocent child. In The Falling Leaves soldiers are compared to graceful, white snowflakes. “Like snowflakes