Poppies in July-Plath Flashcards
Themes
◍ conflicted relationships between beauty and pain
‘little hell flames’
◍ speaker asks if they’ll do harm
◍ suggests their beauty and potential danger
◍ poppies brightness and heat contrasts the speakers sense of emptiness.
‘nothing burns’
◍ she put her hands among the flames but feels nothing
◍ the inability to feel anything reflects on the speaker’s sense of numbness and dissociation
◍ this imagery suggests beauty and violence as if the poppies are both dangerous
‘but colorless,colorless’
◍carries a striking juxtaposition and emphasizes the absence of vibrancy or life in something that’s expected to be colorful and lively.
◍ turns to substance abuse to escape the pain
◍ colorless symbolizes escape of alcohol being ultimately useless