Poppies in July-Plath

Question 1

Themes

Answer 1

◍ conflicted relationships between beauty and pain

Question 2

‘little hell flames’

Answer 2

◍ speaker asks if they’ll do harm
◍ suggests their beauty and potential danger
◍ poppies brightness and heat contrasts the speakers sense of emptiness.

Question 3

‘nothing burns’

Answer 3

◍ 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

Question 4

‘but colorless,colorless’

Answer 4

◍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