Aunt Julia

Question 1

What did the poet do instead of communicating with her?

Answer 1

Watched Julia work- admiration? (“While her right hand drew yarn”)

Question 2

What technique suggests paddling in “paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel

Answer 2

Onomatopoeia (paddling the spinning wheel) and visual image

Treadle: leaver worked by the strong foot
Spinning wheel: made the yarn, he was fascinated by this

Question 3

Did she have any help doing things?

Answer 3

No she was all alone doing all the chores and taking the peat for fuel/heat

Question 4

What did MacCaig notice about her?

Answer 4

“Her strong foot” (sees her strong bare foot stained with peat) wider themes: strong, admiration and practicality

Question 5

What sort of lifestyle did she live?

Answer 5

Simple, rustic

Question 6

She only had 1 pair of shoes when….

Answer 6

“When she wore any”

Question 7

“She wore men’s boots”

Answer 7

Visual image, they were big and ugly (suggests she had big feet) and they were practical (also suggests that they were second hand)

Question 8

What was the wider theme when the poet says “I could not understand her”

Answer 8

Lack of understanding and frustration

Question 9

“I could not answer her”

Answer 9

Parenthesis explains why the poet could not answer (she was speaking Gaelic and he can’t understand it)

Question 10

What does the intensifier make you think of in “she spoke very loud and very fast?

Answer 10

It uses enjambment, makes you think that she is continually speaking, (also talks about the past)

Question 11

How did she speak?

Answer 11

“Very loud and very fast”

Question 12

What language did aunt Julia speak that MacCaig couldn’t at the time

Answer 12

She spoke Gaelic whilst he spoke English

Question 13

What technique suggests paddling in “paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel

Answer 13

Onomatopoeia (paddling the spinning wheel) and visual image

Treadle: leaver worked by the strong foot
Spinning wheel: made the yarn, he was fascinated by this

Question 14

How could very loud and very fast seem to a small child?

Answer 14

It could be quite confusing/scary but also frustrating as he wanted to get to know her

Question 15

Analyse “with so many questions unanswered.”

Answer 15

“So many”: about why/how she’s passed (Misses her a lot)

“unanswered”: Regretful tone? Really wanted to get to know her as she seemed very interesting

Question 16

What technique does “and getting angry, getting angry” use?

Answer 16

Repetition: MacCaig is getting angry as no one is trying to help all her vegetables or at least eating them

Question 17

What happened to her peat scrapes and lazy beds after she passed?

Answer 17

No one took care of them at all

Question 18

Across how far could he hear her voice?

Answer 18

“Across a hundred yards of peat scrapes and lazy beds”

Question 19

What technique is used in “with a seagull’s voice”

Answer 19

Metaphor - emphasis on her loud and annoying voice

Question 20

“But I hear her still, welcoming me”

Answer 20

“Hear her still” - he can still hear her fast and loud voice

misses her a lot and think that she’s still there

Question 21

Where was she buried?

Answer 21

In a “sandy grave at Luskentyre”

South of the Isle of Harris - somewhere important to her?

Question 22

Analyse “silenced in the absolute black”

Answer 22

Silenced: she could no longer be that very loud and very fast person

Repetition of the absolute black suggesting she is lonely after passing even more than she was when she was alive

Question 23

“By the time I had ‘L’earned a ‘L’ittle, she ‘L’ay” what technique was used?

Answer 23

Alliteration: the ‘L’ connect the alliteration to the
”I had learned a little she lay silenced”

“ a little, she lay” - She lays in a coffin in the ground (first time she’s been quite and still)

Theme: sympathy for MacCaig (cared and loved her a lot)

Question 24

What 2 lines where repeated in stanza 5?

Answer 24

“Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic”
and
“very loud and very fast.”

Question 25

Where did she hide her money?

Answer 25

Her teapot is the keeper of her money (suggests little money/saving them)

Question 26

She was a keeper of….

Answer 26

Threepennybits

Keeper: most likely a jar or something to keep all her money safe

Question 27

“She was brown eggs, black skirts” analyse “brown eggs” and “black skirts”

Answer 27

Brown eggs: her chickens eggs

Black skirts: all the mud and dirt all over her skirt (her hard work)

Question 28

What’s the quote which suggests a small smooth house?

Answer 28

“round house-ends.” (Cosy but tiny)

Question 29

“She was winds pouring wetly” suggests…

Answer 29

Rough, bleak environment.

And her determination to keep working whilst it’s raining (shows how tough she is in all conditions)

Question 30

“and water flouncing into them.” Analyse water and flouncing

Answer 30

Water: used for cleaning yourself/drinking

Flouncing: Personification describing Julia’s personality. Connotations of constant movement
(Practical and independent)

Question 31

What does “crickets being friendly.” (Stanza 3) and “She was buckets” (stanza 4) have in common

Answer 31

Both metaphors

Enjambment links the two sections of each metaphor

Question 32

Why does MacCaig say “She was buckets”

Answer 32

Uses a lot of metaphors (didn’t know her well)
“Was”: past tense (looking back? Or foreshadowing)
Buckets: suggests hard work and physical labour

Question 33

“Crickets being friendly”

Answer 33

Metaphor: he didn’t know that they were looking for a mate

Question 34

Describe the box bed he payed on

Answer 34

It was a simple wooden bed with a drape separating it from the room
Very hard, uncomfortable bed yet he relaxes in it

Question 35

Analyse “in the absolute darkness”

Answer 35

Absolute: sees only black nothing else

Relaxed but lonely, makes us feel as if he’s all by himself

Question 36

What was the big novelty he found at his aunts?

Answer 36

The box bed (exciting as it’s new)

Childhood Innocence- listening to the crickets’ mating calls

Question 37

What does “hers was the only house” suggests?

Answer 37

She’s the only one that’s there- suggests she lived by herself (either a widower or spinster)
Might be happy by herself
Theme: independent

Question 38

Analyse “Marvellously out of the air”

Answer 38

Visual imagery- watched her produce yarn out of wool, it probably seemed like magic
Marvellously- connotation- fascinated, admiration (disbelief)
Theme: practical, awe- a sense of wonder, frustration