aunt julia Flashcards
“gaelic”
not a common language
“very loud and very fast”
suggests she is extroverted and has a lot of energy
“i could not answer her, i could not understand her”
repetition, shows speakers helplessness, implies it’s his fault for not knowing gaelic
“understand her”
metaphor, he’s never met anyone like her before, also literally as he doesn’t know the language
“she wore men’s boots when she wore any”
unconventional, women don’t often wear men’s clothes
“strong foot”
physical strength is emphasised
“stained with peat”
links julia to nature, suggests hostile environment, stain has negative connotations
“paddling”
metaphor, gives idea of duck/dog, links to nature
“treadle of the spinning wheel”
dying art, connects aunt julia with the past
“marvellously”
word choice, almost magical to him, in awe of her
“only house”
word choice, “only” emphasises uniqueness
“absolute darkness”
small kids scared of the dark, sounds scary, “absolute” gives idea of finality, death
“box bed”
type of enclosed bed, suggests coffin
“listening to crickets being friendly”
senses, interesting that he can’t understand julia but can understand crickets
“she was buckets”
first metaphor in stanza comparing julia to home/nature
“aunt julia spoke gaelic very loud and very fast”
repetition from start of poem, “gaelic” suggests he’s proud that she could speak it
“by the time i had learned a little”
regret, too late to talk to her
“silenced”
references hearing, suggests the only time she was quiet was when she was dead
“absolute black”
reminds maccaig of box bed, “black” implies it is more permanent than just darkness
“of a sandy grave”
short line, final, blunt
“at luskentyre”
small village on Harris, really nice beach there
“i hear her still”
one of several references to hearing in this stanza
“peatscrapes”
anywhere peat has been taken from
“lazybeds”
traditional way of farming, links aunt julia and nature again
“getting angry, getting angry”
repetition creates emphasis
“questions unanswered”
repetition from line 3
