Visiting hour by Norman MacCaig - Key quotes and analysis Flashcards
“the hospital smell combs my nostrils”
Sparks memory of hospital in audience.
Word choice of ‘the’ shows universality of well-known ‘hospital smell’.
‘hospital’ establishes setting, lets us know he is visiting someone ill.
Synecdoche - he is represented just by his nostrils, suggests smell is so overpowering it has blocked all other senses and it is all he can think about. Perhaps he is trying to avert his thoughts from the visit.
“i will not feel, i will not feel, until i have to”
Repetition of ‘I’ shows his determination to not feel.
Repetition of statement makes it feel like a chant or a mantra - he is trying to calm himself and control his emotions.
‘Until/I have to’ use of enjambment highlights that he is aware that he will have to address his feelings - he can’t escape what is happening and is expecting the death of the patient.
“carrying their burden of so much pain, so many deaths”
Lists what the nurses have to cope with.
Repetition emphasises the amount they have to deal with on a regular basis - contrasts to MacCaig who can’t deal with one ill person.
Word choice of ‘burden’ has connotations of uncomfortable, weight, emotional baggage. Highlights the strength of the nurses as they are forced to live with the death of people they befriended and love, all whilst remaining optimistic and positive.
“a withered hand trembles on its stalk”
Word choice of ‘withered’ suggests weak, dying, losing life. Poet chose this word to convey the idea of something living that is now died out and shrivelled up. Hints at how full of life she was before.
This is extended by the word ‘stalk’ which suggests that her wrist is too weak to support her hand.
‘its’ is an impersonal pronoun, suggests her body is an empty shell.
“a glass fang is fixed, not guzzling but giving”
Word choice of ‘fang’ has connotations of vampires. Suggests the patients life form is being sucked from her. Vampire theme also suggests she is in a state of superposition of being nor dead nor alive.
Shocking imagery highlights distress of poet seeing the woman this way. Alliteration of ‘g’ furthers this by conveying the harsh bitterness and uncomfort the speaker feels because he thinks the medication is both intrusive and ineffective.
“she smiles a little at this black figure in her white cave”
Contrasting colours show the different situations of the speaker and the patient. The visitor ‘black’ is bold and stands out starkly against the white surroundings. The patient, on the other hand, looks weak and insubstantial.
metaphor of ‘black figure’ creates connotations of the grim reaper infiltrating the pure innocent, lively ‘white cave’.
repetition of ‘white cave’ suggests the isolation she feels and that her life form is fading.
“leaving behind only books that will not be read and fruitless fruits”
Bitter despair and hopelessness.
Oxymoron ‘fruitless fruits’ creates confusion, suggesting denial of losing patient.
Use of enjambment to focus on final image. Patients inability to eat the fruit establishes her lack of life. Because she wont survive to eat them, they will rot and decay. This is symbolic of her death to come.
Word choice of ‘fruitless’ suggests useless, ineffective, unsuccessful. This word emphasises that the visitor feels like his visit has been pointless and had no benefit at all.
