1. Plath - Poppies in July Date:
Objectives:
Introduce and annotate the poem
Explore the themes of loneliness and nature.

2. What do you think of when you see Poppies? What do they look like?
Warm-up - poppies
What do you think of when you see Poppies? What do they look like?

3. Context note before reading poem
Plath had just separated from her husband.
Depressed, numb, seeking pain and drugs to distract her.
Year before her suicide.
Poppy symbol of sleep from the drug it makes.
Symbol of death from its colour.
(Remembrance day November too)

4. Let’s read – Poppies in July
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.

5. Note this down:
Form
Short statements create drama. It creates a bare, tense effect where she is struggling to express herself.
Lyric poem – expresses personal emotion and feeling – First person.
Unrhymed couplets – rhyming means structure and stability.

6. Note this down:
Lines 1-2
The tone of the voice suggest a masochistic desire for self harm. Looking for pain.
‘hell flames’ – unusual and negative frame of mind.

7. Note this down:
Lines 3-4
Puts her hands in the fire and is disappointed.
Numb, cannot feel anything.

8. Note this down:
Lines 5-6
Experience of starring at flowers ‘exhausts’ her.
No energy, weary of world.
‘Flickering’ – fire.
‘red, skin of a mouth’ – flower petals or wounded mouth.

9. Note this down:
Lines 7-8
Little skirts – husbands affair. Skirt covered in blood. (Whose?)
Unsettling and disturbing imagery linking flowers to violence.

10. Note this down: Line 9-10 Her senses become increasingly dulled.
SYNAESTHESIA – confusion of senses. Tries to touch fumes and flames not burning her.
Conveys her state of mind.
Aware of poppies scent – seeks them for relief or pain.

11. Note this down:
Lines 11-12
Longs for release from her numb depressed state.
‘marry’ – choice words – her failed marriage.

12. Note this down:
Lines 13-15
Senses dulled to point of everything becoming colourless.
Poppies can be seen as symbol of life here. They refuse to harm the speaker, remain colourful as long as possible and dance around despite her low energy.

13. Note this down: Final note
The sound of the poem is important. Broad vowels (A, O, U) slow the pace of the poem and convey low energy. Slender vowels (I, E) describe the flowers and speed things up.
‘Juxtaposition’ placed near each other with contrasting effect. ‘The juxtaposition of the broad vowels and slender vowels’.

14. Questions on back of page
Complete questions for homework.
Cooldown - finish the following sentences.
I think......
I know
I want to know