VIEW OF SCOTLAND Flashcards
1
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“there is no time like the present”
A
- poem ends with the speaker discussing last and present; although most of the poem has focussed on her memory of previous new years, the final message is to remember to seize the day and appreciate the moment you are in.
2
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“(this is too ordinary to be nostalgia)”
A
- parenthesis = the speaker explains that, despite this being a memory, it is such a normal moment that she is not looking back in it with any strong feelings and does not want to be sentimental.
3
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“jiffywaxing the vinolay”
A
- this made up word choic suggests a Scottish dialect, establishing a domestic scene and suggesting thar this is a working class home/these are words the family uses.
4
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“‘Last year it was very quiet…’”
A
- spoken by the mother as she looks to the past; she will continue the preparations even if no one is expected to show up.
5
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“a dangling calendar is propped under last year’s”
A
- the imagery of a new calendar is symbolic of looking forward into the future, and the fcat that the old calender is still ‘dangling’ suggests they are clinging to the past.
- it is considered bad luck to replace a calendar before midnight - tradition
6
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“Darling, it’s thirty years since”
A
- this word choice at the opening of the stanxa is immediately intimate and affectionate as the speaker addresses her lover directly.
- link to theme of time - this shift to 30 years in the future from the previous memory suffesrs that time moves quicker the older we get.
7
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“familair strangers at a party”
A
- theme of time - setting has changed from mother’s kitchen to a party, highlighting that no matter how old we get we spend Hogmanay with out friends and family.
- this word choice is an oxymoron - suggests that the people we learn to love in out lives were all once strangers to us.
8
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“we did not know that we were the happiness we wished each other when the bells went”
A
- the speaker questions her lover; she introduces the ‘love’ element of the poem by discussing the way that they fell in love on Hogmanay when they innocently wished each other well.
9
Q
[VIEW OF SCOTLAND]
“steak pies like quilts on a double bed”
A
- simile suggests warmth and comfort, links to the past by recalling the mother;s dress on the bed and the shared love between the couple.
- this is the final mention of the past.
