Norman MacCaig, Visiting Hour. Flashcards
Analyse “ the hospital smell”
Word Choice: “hospital smell” is something everyone is familiar with.
What is your analysis of “combs my nostrils”
Metaphor/word choice: the smell is overpowering- it becomes a comb brushing against his nose harshly. This is a poignant image- he has not seen the patient yet, so is ‘keeping it together’ at this point.
explain what you think is meant by “as they go bobbing along green and yellow corridors.”
Word choice: colours have connotations of sickness, which further stresses the poets discomfort in these surroundings.
analyse “what seems a corpse is trundled into a lift and vanishes heavenward”.
Word choice: ‘corpse’ ‘vanishes’ and ‘heavenward’ have connotations of death, which suggest that this is what the poet is beginning to think about as he is walking down the corridor.
Enjambment: the poet takes a new line to give these ‘key’ words more emphasis. ‘Heavenward’ even gets a line to itself.
What is meant by “I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have too.”
Repitition: poet seems to be chanting to himself- trying to control the demons in his head.
Explain what you think is meant by “here and up and dawn and there,”
Structure: the unusual word order is emphasising the number of nurses he sees and how busy they are.
analyse “their slender waists miraculously carrying their burden of so much pain, so many deaths,”
Word choice: the poet admires the difficult job nurses have as they face death regularly. “Miraculously” suggests he cannot understand how they do it.
Repition of “so” emphasises the number of unpleasant situations the nurses have to deal with.
Analyse the quote “Ward 7.”
Structure: A minor sentence(non-sentence) draws attention to this turning point in the poem. MacCaig has arrived at his destination.
What is meant by “white cave of forgetfulness”
Metaphor: suggesting the white curtains are cave-like. This shows the isolation of the woman, and the poets exclusion from her.
analyse the phrase “whithered hand trembled on its stalk.”
Metaphor: suggesting the woman’s body is brittle and frail, by comparing it to dying flower.
Word choice: “withered”, “trembles”, “wasted” all suggest the patient is very close to death.
Analyse “wasted of colour a glass fang is fixed, not guzzling but giving.”
Metaphor/alliteration: suggesting the IV drip is vampire-like. The horror in this image is shocking, which shows the poet’s grief.
Explain what is meant by “distance of the pain thay neither she nor I can cross.”
Enjambment: the poet uses the gap between lines to put an emphasis on the distance between the patient and vehement visitor.”
Analyse “black figure in her white cave who clumsily rises into the round swimming waves of a bell and dizzily goes off”
Metaphor: contrast in colours again highlights the distance between the patient and visitor. “Black figure” could relate to the image of the grim reaper- returning to the poets thought of death.
Word choice: Bells ring to mark the end of visiting hour. “clumsily”, “dizzily”, “swimming waves”, all suggest the poet is struggling with his emotions now.
Analyse “books thay will not be read and fruitless fruits”
Paradox/oxymoron: the patient’s inability to eat the fruit or read the books establishes their utter lack of life. The paradox highlights how desperate and hopeless the speaker’s situation is and ends on a sad note of dispair.
