Visiting hour Flashcards
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“As they go bobbing along”
MacCaig uses ol factory imagery helps is understand how strong and overwhelming the smell is.
He also uses Synecdoche to help us understand how it’s not just his nose that’s overwhelmed it’s him as a whole.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“The hospital smell combs my nostrils”
The technique used in this quote is a metaphor of “combs”. It tells us how painful the smell is.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“I will not feel …”
Repetition is almost like a mantra or chant to help MacCaig convince himself.
Sense of obligation. This emphasises how overwhelmed and nervous MacCaig feels towards the visit.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“bobbing along”
The poet uses a metaphor to describe the nurses bouncing along, merrily, not oppressed like him by grim reality of death. This emphasises how MacCaig admires the nurses.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“slender waists miraculously
carrying their burden …”
The metaphor of the burden makes us think about how much weight they’re carrying of death of their patients.
The contrast between slender and burden is the contrast between how young they are and how they have to deal with a large amount of difficulty
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“so many farewells”
repetition of “so” stresses his amazement that they can be so cheery
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“white cave of forgetfulness”
Connotations of his negative mind set as she approaches death, he anticipates it as something to be feared, dreaded, he is psyched out, stressed out by it
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“withered hand
Trembles on its stalk”
Her hand is compared to a dying leaf on its withering ‘stalk’ which in life connected it to its tree, to life, metaphor.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“…glass fang …
not guzzling but giving …
Compare drip to vampire – metaphor & alliteration (g) – again suggests he sees everything as threatening life/from perspective of death – ‘guzzling’ has connotations of stealing/assaulting/consuming which paints a visual image of pain/patient as passive body/having things done to it … no choice
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“black figure in her white cave”
Metaphor, referring to the universal image of Death,
“figure” also suggesting the woman’s blurred vision. This emphasises the isolation of the woman, as well as her impending and unavoidable death
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“the round swimming waves of a bell”
– Synaesthesia, as a visual image describes a sound (signalling the end of the Visiting Hour?). “swimming” could suggest the poet’s dizziness (confusion) or tears. This is from the woman’s point of view, so further shows her isolation, and the poet’s isolation from her.
Name and explain the technique in this quote.
“fruitless fruits”
Using a metaphor to make us think about how there is no helping this patient. There is nothing that is going to improve her health. The poet is facing her death.
