Visiting Hour Flashcards
“The hospital smell combs my nostrils”
Metaphor - overpowering nature of smell
“green and yellow corridors”
Colours have connotations of sickness
“corpse”
Word choice - connotations of death and MacCaig’s realisation that his loved one is going to die
“trundled”
Word choice - rough and careless, makes him uneasy
“I will not feel, I will not feel”
Repetition - shows us he is trying to calm himself down because he knows she is going to die
“until I have to”
Link to further heartache to come
“here and up and down and there”
Sentence structure- long complex sentence, words in random order and hectic to show there were nurses everywhere
“miraculously”
“burden”
Shows he is amazed by the nurses and their dedication to their job as they have to deal with death on a daily basis
“their eyes still clear after so many farewells”
Strength to not cry and come back each day after dealing with many deaths
“Ward 7.”
Short sentence shows the shock he feels when he finally makes it to her ward - closer to the reality of her death
“white cave of forgetfulness”
Metaphor - in hospital room, shows the state of her physical and mental health
“withered hand trembles on its stalk”
“withered” - like a dying plant
Shows she is very sick and her arms and body are thin
“wasted”
Associated with starvation
“glass fang”
IV drip shows how sick she actually is as she can’t care for herself
“guzzling but giving”
He sees it as negative but knows it is helping her
