Visiting Hour Flashcards
What are the main themes of Visiting Hour?
Loss.
Suffering.
Isolation.
Painful experiences.
S1 - “hospital smell combs”
Metaphor.
Appeals to our sense of smell.
Brings to mind pervasive smells with which we associate with hospitals - underlines strength of smell.
Odour assaults our sense of smell and is overwhelming.
S1 - “bobbing”
Word choice.
Pleasant connotations as though he’s trying to trick himself into thinking experience wont be as bad as he anticipates - trying to be cheerful.
S2 - “seems”
Word choice.
Suggests he doesn’t want to face the truth.
S2 - “corpse”
Word choice.
Reminds us of death and mortality.
S2 - “trundled into a lift and vanishes heavenward”
Metaphor - comparing lift’s journey with a journey of a soul to heaven.
Reminds us of inevitability of death.
Rising lift becomes symbolic of journey to heaven and might hint at speakers hope death is not end.
S2 - “heavenward”
Word choice.
Emphasises and isolates word, reinforcing finality and isolation of death.
S3 - “I will not feel, I will not feel”
Repetition - emphasises speakers determination not to allow emotions to overpower him.
Shows fear of being overwhelmed of breaking down.
S3 - “feel”
Word choice.
Conveys how desperately speaker would like to remain numb.
S4 - “burden”
Word choice.
Ability to carry emotional baggage - nurses astonish speaker who struggles to keep his feelings from coming to the surface.
S4 - “So…so…so”
Repetition.
Emphasises emotional strain of nurses’ job.
Helps us understand speaker’s surprise at way nurses are able to function so effectively when surrounded by so much pain and suffering.
S4 - “farewells”
Word choice.
Connotations of saying goodbye to someone going on a long journey.
Idea that you might meet someone again after a journey suggests poet might believe or wished he believed in an after life.
S5 - Turning point for poem - Why?
Poet must confront reality of situation he has been so desperate to avoid.
S5 - “she lies in a white cave of forgetfulness”
Metaphor - describes patient’s situation and reveals isolation and lack of sensory awareness in her current state.
Emphasises how distant she is now from speaker.
S5 - “A withered hand trembles on its stalk”
Metaphor - comparing body to dying flower conveys how brittle and frail she is now, as well as hinting at her past vitality.
S5 - “its”
Pronoun dehumanises woman suggesting her body is merely an empty shell and she is no longer alive.
S6 - “black figure in her white cave”
Contrasts between the 2 figures.
Contrasting colours show different situations of speaker and patient.
Patient - looks weak and insubstantial.
Speaker/visitor - stands out starkly against surroundings.
S6 - “clumsily” and “dizzily”
Adverbs reinforce sense of confusion and grief that describe his movements as he leaves.
S6 - “swimming waves”
Implies he felt as though he is overwhelmed or drowning in his emotions.
S6 - “growing fainter, not smaller”
Suggests own identity is less clear, less well-defined because of the loss of loved one.
Sense of self and understanding of world may be less sure.
