Memorial Flashcards

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1
Q

Key themes of Memorial

A
  • Death
  • Unending Grief
  • Loss
  • Isolation
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2
Q

STANZA 1

“Everywhere she dies, Everywhere I go she dies”

A

The process of her dying stays with him constantly. Poet cannot escape the though of death. Repeated for reinforcement in feelings.

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3
Q

STANZA 1

“No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountains”

A

The ‘no’ emphasises how inescapable and ubiquitous her death is for him. Poet denies himself of life’s pleasures. Cannot escape death no matter how much beauty is around him

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4
Q

STANZA 1

“The silence of her dying sounds through the carousel of language”

A

Poet uses paradox to show this silence is so intense it impacts as a loud noise would. What he saw as a bright, fun, colourful and musical ride is now silenced by her death.

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5
Q

STANZA 1

“A web on which laughter stitches itself”

A

Her death is now a web - he is unable to free himself from its hold. The word ‘stitches’ suggests this hold is very strong. Silence is a web trapping him - overpowering him?

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6
Q

STANZA 1

“How can my hand clasp another’s”

A

Poets feeling of despair. Can never find another future love.

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7
Q

STANZA 1

“Think death, that intolerable distance”

A

Impenetrable barrier between the dead and the living

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8
Q

STANZA 2

“She grieves for my grief”

A

Reinforces the bond the two shared while she was alive implying she couldn’t bear to see him sad and suffering.

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9
Q

STANZA 2

“Dying she tells me that bird dives from the sun, that fish leaps into”

A

Death is not natural to MacCaig. Death, by implication, is seen as a reversal of the natural side of living.

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10
Q

STANZA 2

“No crocus is carved more gently”

A

Compares her death to a crocus flower - beautiful, natural and fragile. ‘Crocus’ - A symbol for hope and renewal. ‘Carved’ - implications of pain.

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11
Q

STANZA 2

“Other words, black words”

A

Condolences and sympathies from family and friends.

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12
Q

STANZA 2

“The sound of soundlessness”

A

Whisper to him of the horror of the oblivion of the grave

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13
Q

STANZA 2

“That nowhere she is continuously going into”

A

Heaven? God? Poet seems to be unconvinced. Death is presented as a kind a kind of metaphorical journey that has no destination and never ends. The poet believes there is nothing after her death.

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14
Q

STANZA 3

“Ever since she died she cant stop dying”

A

Poet is saying that she is eternally dying in his thoughts. Paradox - doesnt make sense just like her death doesnt make sense to him.

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15
Q

STANZA 3

“She makes me her elegy”

A

An elegy is a song or poem associated with death. Emphasises that his grief is raw. He has become a physical embodiment of a lament.

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16
Q

STANZA 3

“I am a walking masterpiece”

A

He personifies her death and grief she has left behind. Strength of grief - he is the great example of grief.

17
Q

STANZA 3

“True fiction”

A

Paradox - her death doesnt feel real. The poet uses these confusing contrasts to emphasise his confused state in losing her.

18
Q

STANZA 3

“Ugliness of death”

A

Seen as a disease

19
Q

STANZA 3

“I am her sad music”

A

Pessimistic end. Relates again to sound. Poet is now accepting again of sound.