The Watergaw by Hugh MacDiarmid

1. The Watergawby Hugh MacDiarmid Hugh MacDiarmid worked as a journalist on the Montrose Review for many years and would have seen many rainbows over Rossie braes. The death of his father inspired this poem which has a distinctly Montrose feel to the images he uses both in the rainbow itself and the skylarks on the links in the evening.

2. The Watergaw by Hugh MacDiarmid Ae weet forenicht i the yow-trummleI saw yon antrin thing,A watergaw wi its chitterin lichtAyont the on-ding;An I thocht o the last wild look ye giedAfore ye deed!There was nae reek i the laverock's hooseThat nicht - an nane i mine;But I hae thocht o that foolish lichtEver sin syne;An I think that mebbe at last I kenWhat your look meant then.

3. Ae weet forenicht i the yow-trummle • Literally a wet evening at the time of the sheep sheering. • This works well on several levels. • We are given a time of the day evening when the world becomes darker like the mood of the poem. It is wet so this adds to the mood of unpleasant gloom. • We are also given the time of year and the old scots word ‘youw-trummle’ gives us a visual picture of the sheep shivering in the fields. Again setting the tone of sombre discomfort. • We can see this picture because of the scots words and into this dark, cold gloom he hits us with the contrasting light and shimmering colour of the broken rainbow .

4. I saw yon antrin thing,A watergaw wi its chitterin lichtAyont the on-ding; • Literally I saw that strange, rare thing , a broken rainbow with its shivering light beyond the heavy downpour of rain. • This image is the key to the poem. How does this sight suddenly make the poet understand ‘the last wild look’ on his father’s face just before he died?

5. I saw yon antrin thing,A watergaw wi its chitterin lichtAyont the on-ding; • The down pour ‘on-ding’ can just be more of the gloom of the first line • or it could be death itself hanging like a dark shadow above his father’s bed. • It could be the fear of death or the impending sorrow related to loss or maybe all of these things. • The stunning thing is the idea of the rainbow shivering and incomplete behind this gloom and darkness. What could it mean?

6. A watergaw wi its chitterin licht • A rainbow , especially a shivering broken one could be so many things. • It could be the promise of heaven • It could be God’s reassurance like the rainbow he sent to Noah after the flood, another ‘on-ding’ • It could be the joy of a deeply religious man about to meet his maker • It could be the pot of gold , a promise of wealth and happiness

7. A watergaw wi its chitterin licht • A rainbow , especially a shivering broken one could be so many things. It could be; • A sudden realisation that heaven was , like the rainbow a trick of the light , an illusion. • A feeling that, like the rainbow, heaven keeps disappearing in front of you • A desperate sudden knowing that having believed in the afterlife all his days… it is not real • The sudden knowledge that these are the last moments of life

8. An I thocht o the last wild look ye giedAfore ye deed! • These lines give us an ambiguous feeling that MacDiarmid suddenly knows what it all about. Heaven or hell; eternal life or dust to dust. The poet doesn’t say which. • This leads us to the second stanza. The reader feels like shouting at the poem ‘ so what did it mean then?’ • The second stanza gives a clue but in no way does it absolutely say on way or another.

9. There was nae reek i the laverock's hooseThat nicht - an nane i mine; • This is the second big image of the poem. The picture of the sky, ‘the lavrock’s hoose’ being empty of smoke or atmosphere and the poet , like the sky feeling empty too. • But there is more to it. The lavrock, the skylark is often seen as a symbol of poetic creativity as in Shelly’s poem ‘Ode to a Skylark’ and in this case it is silenced; the poets soul is extinguished in his sadness. • The idea of reek in the sky is also like a reference to the old Celtic tradition of letting the hearth fire go out to mark the death of the house’s occupant, so the fire allusion is double edged it is as if the sky too is lifeless to mark the death of his father.

10. But I hae thocht o that foolish lichtEver sin syne; • This seems to be a return to the thinking of the first stanza but it is subtly more than that. His use of the word ‘foolish’ gives us one of the strongest hints as to what he made of his father’s look. • It suggests that the ‘watergaw’ is silly , a trick of the light, broken and shivering and insubstantial… as insubstantial as heaven perhaps.

11. An I think that mebbe at last I kenWhat your look meant then. • Here again it is the word ’mebbe’ that gives it some power. Just as we are tempted to think MacDiarmid is saying there is no heaven and his father knew it, he seems to backtrack and says ‘mebee’ … he doesn’t really know , he can’t be sure. • This ambiguity is one of the strengths of the poem; he doesn’t know , none of us can. We can only guess and fear. Maybe in the end it is that which the father is wildly facing: the terrible fear of the unknown.

12. Introduction • Name of the ‘text’ and the author • A brief answer to the question The poem’ The Watergaw’ by Hugh Macdiarmid has a sinister atmosphere because the poem deals with the subject of death and has two powerful images that try to explain the author’s ideas.

13. Second paragraph • Brief outline of the text and how it relates to the question ‘The Watergaw’ is an account of Hugh Macdiarmid’s experience of watching his father die. He seems to have been reminded of the look on his father’s face just before he passed away by a rainbow that appears beyond a heavy downpour of rain. He remembers how devastated he was by the whole event and muses on what must have been going through his dad’s mind. The dark or sinister aspect comes from his own thoughts about what his father seemed so scared of at the moment of his death.

14. Third paragraph • First main point and first quotation The central image of the poem, the rainbow, and how it tells us about his father’s death and contributes to the sinister atmosphere. Quote should be ‘ A watergaw wi its chitterin licht Ayont the on-ding;

15. Paragraph structure for the critical essay Start with the point you are making The ‘watergaw’ or rainbow is the central image used in the poem and for MacDiarmid it symbolises the promise of heaven . Then use the quotation ‘A watergaw wi its chitterin licht Ayont the on-ding; Then explain what you mean The on-ding or down pour of rain is symbolic of the shadow of death and MacDiarmid thinks that what he sees in the sky is rather like what must have confronted his father on his death. The rainbow was God’s promise to Noah not to flood the world or it could be just that there is sunshine behind this dark rain. Whatever you think it is a potent image of the way in which the promise of heaven must have seemed to his father. The ‘chitterin licht’ suggests it is shaky and shivering not steady so it suggests that if it is a promise it is maybe a shaky one. The looming darkness of the ‘on-ding’ definitely contributes to the sinister atmosphere of the poem.

16. Fourth paragraph • Second main point The other big image in the poem, the skylark’s nest being quiet and still just like the poet’s spirit. How this contributes to the rather depressing feel of the poem.

17. There was nae reek i the laverock's hooseThat nicht - an nane i mine; Start with the point you are making The rather dark feel of the poem continues with the description of the sky on the evening of his father’s death . Then use the quotation There was nae reek i the laverock's hooseThat nicht - an nane i mine; Then explain what you mean The word reek refers to the ‘smoke ‘ in the sky. Like the smoke you might see from someone’s house fire showing that there is life there. It could refer to the song of the skylark (laverock) suggesting that there was no sound. The skylark has often been associated with the ‘spirit’ in poetry because of the way it soars up to the sky and its musical song, so here it becomes a symbol of the fact that MacDiarmid feels that his spirit is dead like the sky , ‘an nane I mine’ . No fire in the hearth , so no smoke in the sky and no bird song , all wonderful images of the desolation the author feels at the death of his father.

18. Fifth paragraph • Third main point The use of Scots . How the author uses long-forgotten words to put his point across and why that contributes to the sinister feeling.

19. The Use of Scots Ae weet forenicht i the yow-trummle Make your point The Scots that MacDiarmid uses in this poem gives it a special kind of atmosphere and power. The words in the opening line describe so much more than just the setting they give the tone and the feeling for the whole poem. Quote ‘Ae weet forenicht’ Explain and discuss The ‘forenicht’ evening is wet which is a fairly depressing start but sets the scene for a damp evening in Montrose but the historic Scots term ‘yow-trummle’ is magical; it literally mean sheep-trembling. This sets the poem at the end of summer and fixes an image in the reader’s mind of sheep shivering on a cold hillside in the rain in the early evening. The power of this is to make us feel the cold and share in a kind of misery that the poem is dealing with. The Scots Macdiarmid uses is so old it is literal in other words is describes exactly what the word means.

20. The Use of Scots A watergaw wi its chitterin lichtAyont the on-ding; Make your point The central image of the poem is more potent because of the poet’s use of Scots. A rainbow as we have discussed has so many other ideas surrounding it but the Scots makes the reader look at it again. Literally ‘water bow’ it de mystifies it and we see it for what it is. Quote Ayont the on-ding; Explain and discuss Again the Scots gives us something more. The onomatopoeic ‘on-ding’ describes the rain bouncing off the ground. The word almost makes the sound and adds to our appreciation of the saturating downpour MacDiarmid is describing.

21. Sixth paragraph - Fourth main point The idea of heaven and the author’s ambiguity… he is not sure Make your point The strength of this poem lies in the Ayont the on-ding; Explain and discuss Again the Scots gives us something more. The onomatopoeic ‘on-ding’ describes the rain bouncing off the ground. The word almost makes the sound and adds to our appreciation of the saturating downpour MacDiarmid is describing.

22. Seventh paragraph • Fifth and last main point Your own opinion and reaction to the sinister theme of the poem

23. Eighth paragraph • Conclusion Sum up your answer to the question, rather like your introduction. In conclusion…