McCaig Poems Flashcards
What are the main themes in visiting hour?
Loss, death, isolation in hospital due to serious illness.
What are the main themes of Aunt Julia?
Regret barriers to communication, death, separation and isolation
What are the main themes in Assisi?
Hypocrisy, pain, suffering, poverty, rejection from society and isolation
What are the main themes of hotel room 12th floor?
Comment on civilisation: Violence, inherent in modern life, isolation from violence, fear of violence
What are the main themes in Basking shark?
Who is the monster? Man vs Nature, Evolution, isolation in boat
What are the main themes of Brooklyn cop?
Comment on civilisation: Violence inherent in modern life, isolation that dangerous job brings
What are the ideas (1) in Visiting hour?
ANGER - that he can’t do anything in the face of death; FEAR of losing a loved one. He was separated from his loved one as she was in hospital in her coma.
What are the ideas (1) of Aunt Julia?
ANGER/GRIEF - that by the time he was able to speak any Gaelic his aunt was dead and the chance was gone. He was separated by the language barrier and isolated
What are the ideas (1) in Assisi?
ANGER - that the dwarf is rejected/ isolated from society white priests should have cared for the dwarf but they are more interested in the tourists
What are the ideas (1) in Hotel room 12th floor?
FEAR OF THE VIOLENCE outside in NYC that he doesn’t move from his hotel room. Disappointment: despite progress, man’s innate propensity is towards violence
What are the ideas (1) in Basking Shark?
FEAR/ REALISATION so who’s the monster? The thought made me grow pale
What are the main ideas (1) in Brooklyn Cop?
REALISATION: we can be brutalised by the job we do. We are intrinsically violent. We have to isolate others we love from true danger of the job so we separate out real nature and adopts another font for the job
What are the ideas (2) in Visiting Hour?
DEATH: “her white cave of forgetfulness” what seems a corpse is trundled heavenward…so many deaths
What are the ideas (2) in Aunt Julia?
NATURE: but I hear her still, welcoming me in a seagulls voice across a hundred yards of peats apes and lazy beds
What are the ideas (2) of Assisi?
REDEEMING FEATURE INNER BEAUTY: voice as sweet as a child’s voice when she speaks to her mother or a birds when it spoke to St Francis
What are the ideas (2) in Hotel room 12th floor?
VIOLENCE / PAIN: skirting like a damaged insect that Jumbo sized dentists drill
What are the ideas (2) in Basking Shark?
NATURE: rise with a slounge out of the sea
What are the ideas (2) in Brooklyn cop?
VIOLENCE: …two hieroglyphs in his face that means Trouble
What are the imagery (1) in Visiting Hour?
DECAY: a withered hand trembles on its stalk
What are the imagery (1) in Aunt Julia?
DECAY: she lay silenced in the absolute black of a sandy grave
What are the imagery (1) in Assisi?
DECAY: sat slumped like a half filled sack
What are the imagery (1) hotel room 12th floor?
VIOLENCE: racing to the broken bones, midnight is not so easily defeated
What are the imagery (1) in Basking Shark?
ORIGINS: emerging from the slime of everything
What are the imagery (1) in Brooklyn cop?
VIOLENCE: what clubbing, what shootings
What are the imagery (2) in visiting hour?
PAIN: metaphor- A glass fang is fixed, not guzzling but giving