Essay

Question 1

1st paragraph?

Answer 1

Visiting hour
MacCaig
Techniques
Convey the tale of...
Key themes
Reader immersed
Question link

Question 2

2nd paragraph?

Answer 2

MacCaig at the start of the poem...
Reader concentrated solely on smell
Suggests smell overwhelming
Chaos, difficulties
Concept conveyed through metaphors
"Combs my nostrils as they go bobbing along"

Question 3

3rd paragraph?

Answer 3

Poem delicately describes- anxiety
Tenderly suggests through VH
Well-thought-out metaphor
Suggests- invaded by smell
Word choice of bobbing
All other senses are blocked
Anxiety- visiting dying relative
caused MacCaig- coping method
Link to themes
"What seems a corpse is trundled into a lift and vanishes heavenward"

Question 4

4th paragraph?

Answer 4

MacCaig suggests death is on his mind
Due to assumption
Word choice is used to imply lack of care with the body
Showing worry for his relative- questioning care she is recieving
Writes of how he is filled with worry and anxiety
Knowing inevitable death

Question 5

5th paragraph?

Answer 5

Middle of poem
suggests nurses carry lots of weight & sadness
Many deaths- no emotion
Concept is conveyed through word choice
Death = work
“their slender waists carrying their burden”

Question 6

6th paragraph?

Answer 6

Poem describes nurses work
Admiration MacCaig has for them- through VH
Well-placed word choice of “burden”
Nurses’ daily routine
Indicates resilience of youth
Majority young females
Atmosphere developed creates imagery with nurses swiftly walking through corridors
Link theme- Death
Through the metaphor of:
She lies in a white cave of forgetfulness

Question 7

7th paragraph?

Answer 7

MacCaig suggests relative unconscious- Alzheimer's
Using metaphor "White cave"
Isolation- screened off- just like poet
Gives the sense patient is screened off
Nurses effect deaths not the same as people deaths
MacCaig = Cloud of anxiety
Possible depression
Lonley
Use of depressive words
Sad atmosphere
Link to themes
Link to question

Question 8

Conclusion?

Answer 8

The poem VH
Expresses pain and fear
No frills with little facade 
Reader- empathise- writer
Extraordinary manner
stirring emotions- thought provoking
Even  most monotonous dull person
Honesty within- that dance across the page
MacCaig succeeds in conveying- themes
Before it occurs anxiety- changing perspective- connecting it to death