Visiting Hour Flashcards
“Combs my nostrils”
Imagery
Gives the idea of the smell of the hospital invading writer’s senses. Unpleasant
“Bobbing”
Wors choice
Lighthearted tone, avoiding seriousness of situation. Synecdoche
“Green and yellow”
Word choice
Use of colour reminds reader of sickness and nausea
What seems a corpse
Word choice
Reminds reader of own mortality. Uncertainty. It seems that it could be a corpse, poet worries about own loved one and considers their mortality
“Vanishes // heavenward”
Enjambement
Emphasises both words
Word choice
Continues idea of mortality and the idea of someone passing on to heaven, even though the writer was an aethiest. Maybe clinging to a belief of loved one instead of own beliefs
“I will bot feel, I will not // feel”
Repetition, emphasises poet’s denial of emotion as he doesn’t want to deal with the reality he must face. Creates tone of anxiety and fear.
“I have to”
Word choice, short sentence, inevitability, doesn’t want to accept what’s happening but has to.
“Nurses walk lightly, swiftly”
Adverbs of lightly and swiftly suggest that nurses do their jobs with ease, or so it seems. There is an elegance and beauty in the way they do their job
“Here and up and down and there”
Syntax, implies the idea that the nurses are everywhere, constantly helping people. Admiration
“She lies”
Word choice of ‘She’ is impersonal and puts distance between the poet and his loved one.
“In a white cave of forgetfulness”
Metaphor, cave gives the idea of isolation, hospital bed surrounded by a white sheet. Forgetfulness implies she may be drugged or is caused by illness. Implies emotional distance and isolation.
“A withered hand // trembles on its stalk”
Metaphor, poor physical condition, trembles suggests being emotionally and/or physically unwell. Hand is like a dying flower on the end of a stalk. Illness is sever enough to badly weaken her
“glass fang is fixed”
Metaphor
Implies idea of a vampire, a threat and danger, but it isn’t, its helping her, giving her nutrients, etc. Realisation
“the distance of pain that neither she nor I // can cross”
Enjambement
Slows the pace of the poem and highlights the idea of dragged out pain
“black figure in her white cave”
Word choice
‘black’ and ‘white’ are opposite colours, this highlights the contrast between the poet and his loved one
