To approach the animated version of Peter Howard's A Poppy we have to focus both on the symbology of flowers and the colours that the author uses to express feelings. This version of the poem begins with a presentation of the tittle together with an image of a poppy. This image is red not only because this is the colour of the flower but also because this colour is essential to understand the war scene where blood overwhelms everything. The colour chosen for the background is green, that could be understood as an idea of hope against all this pain, as better future that will come. In the second and third step of the animated version we see how the poem appears gradually and underlines all the references to the flowers in different colours and in motion. The poem begins with the violet poem on the word "violets", colour that symbolises the mystery that overcomes the village. The blue on the word "samphire" is used by the author to symbolise the coldness of the snipers shooting their weapons. The red of the "geronimous" that is blinking symbolises the passion of people to live, and the same time the insecurity to keep their lives. The pink on the word "carnation" is related to the first injured people in the battle. The orange and yellow of "chrysanthemum" and the beige of "honey suckle" symbolises the bustle of people from one side to the other. The purple on
"crocus" and the light blue of "bluebells" are related to the children, who represent purity, faith and confidence in a better world. The green on "ivy" means mercy and clemency provoked by the elder people. The yellow of "daffodils", "buttercups", "jasmine" and "broom" could represent aggressiveness despair, and the word "buttercup" that falls from the upper part of the page in yellow symbolises the
death of one of the injured. With the red of the "dahlia" that is shaking and the lilac colour of the "lilac" revolving around itself the author implies desolation for those killed people and the hope for those who have been injured. Among the injured, some symbolised by the light blue on "periwinkle", we can feel kindness and purity of children. Also the green shown in "lesser celandine" represents the poor situation suffered by the elder people. Then the white on "common hawthorn" represents the anxiety for peace, in all this "bed of roses", that in red infers all the pain and blood that prevails over this war scene. When the poem is over a red stain appears on the screen that represents all the blood poured by those dead and injured in the war. Finally on this red background we read once and again the last line of the poem "And afterwards the generals awarded themselves petals" accompanied by
the little red flowers that are images of the badges given to the generals for this "successful" battle. First we see a raw of flowers below the sentence. Then gradually it disappears and we can only see "the generals" surrounded the flowers of the poem, that represent all the victims of this senseless war. Finally the black background makes reference to the death.