Big Poppy Essay Questions

What is the significance of gender in "Big Poppy?"

First, "Big Poppy" is a heavily gendered poem: the speaker, presumably male, narrates the action of a bee pollinating a flower using an extended metaphor comparing it to a man and a woman engaged in a sexual affair. The poppy, personified as an attractive woman, is ruthlessly objectified by the speaker as a person whose value and appeal is directly linked to her appearance. The language used to describe the poppy and the woman she represents ("hot-eyed," "lewd," and "athletic") at once praise and degrade her for her sexuality and appearance. The bee, unlike the poppy, is described only through his struggle to reach the flower's center, and through the enjoyment he experiences. The flower, on the other hand, "helplessly" embraces the bee, expressing a certain desperation in spite of the power she wields through her appeal. Though momentarily held captive, the bee retains a certain freedom: he can fly to another flower, while the poppy is fixed in place, and can only wait helplessly for her seed pod to swell, for her petals to fall off completely. Ultimately, "Big Poppy" is a nature poem in which nature itself, personified as feminine, is subjected to a harsh, unsentimental male gaze.

What are the poppy's symbolic resonances in the poem?

The poppy's symbolism extends from the variety and range of its cultural referents. First, because powerful narcotic drugs like opium, heroin, and morphine are derived from its seeds, the poppy is directly linked to pleasure and intoxication. In "Big Poppy," we can identify this element's significance in the poppy's "drunken, fractured goblet," the bee's awkward clamber to her center, the bee's "difficult enjoyment," and the speaker's comment that the poppy's seed pod is "cooking its drug." Flowers are also traditionally feminine symbols, and the poppy is personified as an attractive woman; the flower's red color links the poppy to sexuality. The poppy will also lose her beauty and her life when her seed pod swells, causing her to shed her petals. This combination of erotic intrigue, maternal imagery, and pleasure, all told through the eyes of a male speaker, ultimately makes the poppy a complex symbol of feminine sexuality.