Visiting hour Flashcards
The hospital smell combs my nostrils
Metaphor of combs suggests smell is so pungent and unpleasant it reaches right into the speakers nostrils.
As they go bobbing along
Use of synecdoche separates the nose from his body to suggests that the smell is so overpowering that all other smells are being blocked out.
Also comedic suggesting speaker is blocking true feelings
Green and yellow corridors
Word choice of these colours have connotations of sick and pus - further suggesting the hospital is unpleasant
What seems a corpse
Word choice of corpse when seeing a body shows the speakers pessimism upon entering the hospital.
Trundled into a lift
Word choice of trundled suggests a lack of care taken in the transport of this patient showing poet takes sees no need for care to be taken for an already dead patient suggesting their feelings of hopelessness
Into a lift and vanishes heavenward
W choice of vanishes suggest disappearing and losing suggesting the speaker fears he is too late for their relative.
Enjambed at end of stanza adding further emphasis on the speakers thoughts of death and finality
I will not feel, I will not feel
Repetition intensifies the control he is attempting to impose upon himself. The
Nurses walk lightly, swiftly
“Swiftly” has connotations of speed emphasising the distance the nurses have to cover and things they have to see therefore.
So much pain, so many deaths…. so many farewells.
Repetition of “so much” and “so many” highlights the sheer volume of pain and suffering they must see everyday
Slender waists miraculously carrying their burden
Contrast between how the narrator and the nurses deal with death.
Word choice of “burden” conveys the extent of the anguish the nurses must deal with yet , the word choice of “miraculously” suggests the writers awe of how the nurses can deal with this suffering on a regular basis.
She lies in a white cave of forgetfulness
Metaphor compares the curtains surrounding the bed to a white cave - she is cut off from the ward as effectively as if she was in a cave.
A withered hand trembles on its stalk
Metaphor
Metaphor compares wrist to a plant stalk, both are very weak and fragile this emphasises the severity of the patient’s condition.
A withered hand trembles on its stalk
Word choice
Withered has connotations of death and struggle further suggesting the patients terrible condition.
A glass fang is fixed, not guzzling but giving
The metaphor compares the drip that the patient is on to that of a vampires fang, both involve movement of blood in/ out of the body - a vampire is a shocking and scary thing emphasising the shock of the narrator at the sight of this drip.
The distance of pain that neither she or I can cross
Metaphor compares the emotional and physical pain separating the two to a barrier. Literally a barrier is something preventing things from being able to communicate or touch. Like a barrier the pain separating the two is stopping them from being able to communicate - this further emphasises the emotional and physical pain of the two.
