“Poppies” contains very few end-stops, and many of these are quite soft and subtle. The first really strong end-stop falls in line 6. Lines 3 ("on ... left,"), 4 ("I ... petals,"), 7 ("Sellotape ... hand,"), and 17 ("flattened ... felt,") are all technically end-stopped, but they hardly count, since the sentences continue with power and energy after the line break; the commas offer only the slightest pause. There’s thus not another strongly felt end-stop until line 22. In a sense, this is fitting. End-stops feel certain and sure; they often express confidence and control on the part of a speaker. The speaker of “Poppies” experiences no such confidence or certainty: instead, she is consumed by anxiety about her child’s safety as that child goes off to fight in a war.
And even when the speaker does use end-stop, it does not express confidence or certainty. More often, the end-stops that appear in “Poppies” express doubt, disappointment, and concern. Note for instance, the end-stop in line 21-22:
... A split second
and you were away, intoxicated.
The speaker is describing here how her child—excited and enthusiastic—runs out the door. This is a key moment in the poem’s extended metaphor: it describes the way young soldiers go out into battle with energy and patriotic fervor. The speaker doesn’t share that fervor: instead, she is anxious about her child’s safety. The end-stop conveys that anxiety: it is sudden, sharp, and final. It suggests that the child has made an irreversible decision. The choice to go to war can’t be undone: the speaker has to live with the consequences of her child’s decision. Far from feeling certain and confidence, the end-stop instead amplifies the speaker’s anxious energy, by underlining the limits of her power: she cannot protect her child once that child is “away.”