The Impact of War on Others
War Beyond the Battlefield
Not all conflict poetry is written from the soldier’s perspective. Three poems in the Edexcel Conflict anthology focus on the people left behind or affected indirectly: Poppies by Jane Weir explores a mother’s grief as her son leaves for war; War Photographer by Carole Satyamurti examines how witnessing conflict through a lens creates moral and emotional conflict; and What Were They Like? by Denise Levertov asks what happens to an entire culture when it is destroyed by war.
Jane Weir’s Poppies was commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy in 2009 for a Guardian series of new poems responding to war. It draws on the experience of mothers whose children serve in the armed forces, and blends domestic imagery with the symbolism of Remembrance Day.
Poppies — Jane Weir
The poem is narrated by a mother who pins a poppy on her son’s lapel before he leaves — possibly for war, possibly for the last time. The domestic details are heartbreaking: she resists the urge to “run my fingers through the gelled / blackthorns of your hair” and later smooths down his “shirt’s upturned collar.” These small, physical gestures convey a love she cannot express in words.
Weir uses a extended metaphor of textiles throughout: “I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,” “sellotape bandaged around my hand,” “the world overflowing like a treasure chest.” The textile imagery connects the mother’s domestic world (sewing, fabric) to the military world (the poppy, the bandage). The word “crimped” suggests something carefully made by hand — fragile, easily damaged.
The poem ends with the mother at a war memorial, pressing her ear against it “hoping to hear / your playground voice catching on the wind.” The enjambment here mirrors her reaching out emotionally across the distance. “Playground voice” reminds us he is still her child, regardless of his age, and the verb “catching” suggests the voice is fragile and fleeting, barely there.
Weir deliberately blurs the timeline. The poem shifts between memories of the son as a child (“playground voice,” “All Hallows’ Day”) and the present moment of him leaving. This non-linear structure reflects how grief works — the mother’s mind moves between past and present, unable to separate the child she raised from the soldier he has become. The lack of a clear narrative resolution mirrors the unresolved nature of her grief.
War Photographer — Carole Satyamurti
Satyamurti’s War Photographer (not to be confused with Carol Ann Duffy’s poem of the same title) presents a photographer who documents conflict zones. The poem explores the moral dilemma of witnessing suffering: should the photographer help, or does their role demand they remain detached and document the truth?
The photographer captures an image of a dying man: “The reassurance of the frame” — a distancing mechanism that allows the photographer to cope. The “frame” creates a protected window on suffering. Yet the “reassurance” is fragile: the photographs force them to confront what they witnessed later, in the safety of the darkroom.
Satyamurti uses the metaphor of the camera as a “reflecting eye” — it mirrors reality but also distances the viewer from it. The poem questions whether photography can truly convey suffering, or whether it reduces human agony to a flat, consumable image. This links to AO3: the role of media in shaping public understanding of conflict.
What Were They Like? — Denise Levertov (1966)
Levertov wrote this poem in protest against the Vietnam War. It is structured as a Q&A: six numbered questions about Vietnamese culture are followed by six numbered answers. The questions ask about Vietnamese customs, art, ceremonies and language. The answers reveal that all of it has been destroyed.
The Q&A format is clinically detached — it reads like an anthropological survey about an extinct civilisation. This is deliberate: Levertov forces the reader to confront the idea that an entire living culture has been reduced to a historical curiosity. The past tense throughout (“Did they use bone and ivory?”) treats the Vietnamese as already gone, which is both accusatory and deeply unsettling.
Levertov’s answers grow increasingly emotional: “Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.” The word “Sir” is formally polite but also accusatory — it addresses the powerful people who ordered the destruction. The metaphor “bitter to the burned mouth” is visceral, connecting the physical horror of napalm to the death of joy itself.
Grief (Poppies): Weir focuses on individual, private loss — one mother’s unspoken love for her child. The conflict is internal: the struggle between letting go and holding on.
Moral conflict (War Photographer): Satyamurti explores the ethical tension between documenting suffering and being complicit in it. The photographer’s conflict is professional and personal.
Cultural erasure (What Were They Like?): Levertov addresses the largest scale — the destruction of an entire people’s identity. The conflict is political and collective.
All three poems show that war’s damage extends far beyond the battlefield. In the exam, comparing the scale of impact (individual vs collective) is a strong analytical move.