Norman MacCaig “Scottish Text Question” Visiting Hour

1. Norman MacCaig “Scottish Text Question” Visiting Hour Remember to visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/zrphvcw

2. Stanza 4 Stanza 4 • Praises the nurses for their strength and ability to carry on after seeing so many deaths.

3. Nurses walk lightly, swiftly, • Nurses glide purposefully and elegantly

4. here and up and down and there • Unusual syntax (word order) emphasises the number of nurses there are and have the ability of omnipresence (everywhere at once)

5. Their slender waistsmiraculously • Amazed that they can deal with death and suffering with such slight frames • Miraculously – admiration of nurses abilities, links with image of heavenward and omnipresence

6. Of so much pain, so/ many deaths…/ so many farewells • Repetition – stresses amount of times nurses have to deal with unpleasant things, which supports the respect (envy?) poet has for them

7. Eyes still clear • Remain strong • Not crying

8. So many farewells. • Euphemism – a word or phrase that makes a serious/terrible event sound less harsh farewell = death • The purpose of his visit is to say goodbye • Will possibly meet again suggesting his desire to believe in the afterlife at such troubling times

9. Stanza 5 Stanza 5 • Arrives at ward 7 where his friend/relative is. She appears close to death and does not seem to recognise the poet.

10. Ward 7. She lies • Non-sentence and caesura (sentence stopping part way through a line) is abrupt. Jolts the reader in the same way that the poet is affected • Turning point of poem as now MacCaig must face his emotions

11. In a white cave of forgetfulness • Metaphor – the curtains and sheets are cave-like conveying her isolation • Forgetfulness – ambiguous the room shows no sign of previous patients or she is losing her memory or MacCaig wishes to forget the image

12. A withered hand/ trembles on its stalk • Metaphor – woman’s body is frail and brittle, by comparing it to a dying flower (stalk) • Withered – deteriorated state • Trembles – emphasises old age of the woman • Its – pronoun dehumanises woman, suggesting MacCaig does not see her as human but her body is merely an empty shell, while she is effectively dead

13. Eyes move behind eyelids too heavy to raise. • Emphasises how ill the woman is • Syntax of missed pronoun (her) emphasises that the woman does not seem truly human/alive to the poet

14. Into an arm wasted of colour • Wasted • is wasting away • no longer used

15. glass fang is fixed • Metaphor – suggesting the I.V. canula in arm is like a vampire draining her life-force. The horror of the image shows the poet is shocked and distressed • Alliteration – (“fang… fixed”) emphasises that the I.V. has to remain to support her life but MacCaig is horrified by it

16. Not guzzling but giving • Horror at “glass fang” image is continued by the word “guzzling”, but reversed by the word “giving”. • The alliteration of the guttaral “g” sound conveys the harshness of the poet’s feelings towards it – pointless and intrusive

17. the distance of pain that neither she nor I/ can cross • Metaphor – too painful to admit she is dying so neither talk about it • Sense of futility/uselessness • Acknowledging her physical pain and his emotional pain

18. can cross. • Alliteration Guttural “c” sound emphasises the unpleasant situation • Enjambment – emphasise that it is not possible for MacCaig to show his emotions.

19. Stanza 6 Stanza 6 • He leaves at the end of the hour in a heightened state of emotion leaving behind some books and fruit as a present.

20. She smiles a little • Switched perspective – now from her P.O.V. and is comforted by visit from MacCaig. This helps MacCaig to cope

21. black figure in her white cave • Metaphor – MacCaig appears blurred in her sight and refers to the universal image of death (MacCaig leaving, death appearing) • Metaphor – the emphasis on her isolation in the hospital bay now that MacCaig is leaving

22. clumsily • MacCaig is overcome with emotion and dazed by the experience • She views MacCaig as childlike

23. round swimming waves of a bell • The bell rings gently to signify the end of the visit/ her life • The sound envelops in a less obtrusive manner than the smell of the hospital in the first stanza

24. growing fainter, • Shows the woman’s vision is blurry as she sees him grow fainter as he walks away.

25. and fruitless fruits • Enjambment – last line shows the bitter despair at the hopelessness • Oxymoron – emphasises the pointlessness of the prolonged death and his inability to help – bringing fruit has been “fruitless”/pointless