‘Memorial’
by Norman MacCaig
Norman MacCaig (1910-1996)
• MacCaig is one of the
most influential
Scottish poets.
• He married a fellow
teacher, Isabel Munro,
and they settled in
Edinburgh, bringing
up two children.
• He died six years after
his wife.
Memorial
• Something, e.g. a monument, intended to
celebrate or honour the memory of a
person or an event.
Stanza 1
Memorial
Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.
The silence of her dying sounds through
the carousel of language. It’s a web
on which laughter stitches itself. How can my hand
clasp another’s when between them
is that thick death, that intolerable distance?
Stanza 2
She grieves for my grief. Dying, she tells me
that bird dives from the sun, that fish
leaps into it. No crocus is carved more gently
than the way her dying
shapes my mind. – But I hear, too,
the other words,
black words that make the sound
of soundlessness, that name the nowhere
she is continuously going into.
Stanza 3
Ever since she died
she can’t stop dying. She makes me
her elegy. I am a walking masterpiece,
a true fiction
of the ugliness of death.
I am her sad music.
Structure?
• How many stanzas?
• Is there a pattern? (E.g. Same number of
lines in each.)
• Is there a rhyme scheme?
• Does it follow a particular rhythm?
Technical terms
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Free verse
Metaphor / personification
Repetition
Contrast
Word choice
Oxymoron
Sentence length
Sense descriptions
Glossary
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lurking
carousel
clasp
intolerable
grieves / grief
crocus
elegy
masterpiece
What’s it all about?
• MacCaig describes how the death of a loved one
(his wife) is a constant presence in his life.
• He still sees beauty in the world around him, but
beauty (when it ambushes him) reminds him of
her death.
• Ironically, in the poem, the person who has died
is the active one; the person left behind is
passive, being acted on by the deceased.
Themes
• How the death of a beloved one can linger
on ceaselessly.
• A lament on the passing away of a loved
one.
Annotations
Title
The poem is autobiographical
and in it MaCaig describes the
continuous and constant feeling
of grief he feels at losing his
wife.
The main subject of the poem is
introduced in the title as the
poem is a memorial for a loved
one who has passed away.
Memorial
3 stanzas
The subject of the
memorial is not evident
from the title (the person
is not named). The
universalises the
feelings of grief he is
describing.
by Norman MacCaig
The poem is written in
free verse which
reflects the theme of
struggling to make
sense of the death of
someone close to you.
Stanza 1
(first part)
Repetition of “everywhere”
and “she dies” –
emphasises that “she dies”
everywhere the speaker
goes. Her death is
omnipresent / ubiquitous.
The repetition of ‘no’ in a
list of things we would
normally find beautiful
stresses how her death
colours everything he
sees. The list continues
the idea that her death is
‘everywhere’.
She “dies” is in the
present tense,
introducing an idea that
runs through the poem –
that the death is not in
the past, he is continually
experiencing it (in the
present).
Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.
Awkward syntax. The inversion
– placing all the negatives at
the start of the sentence –
draws attention to how her
death negates all the beautiful
things he sees.
Word choice +
personification.
This is an odd
word to use. It
suggests the
mountain /
nature is waiting
to ambush the
speaker.
Her death is in all
beautiful things. This
contrasts with “the
ugliness of death’ in
the final stanza.
Present tense (again) –
Metaphor – spiders use
reinforces the idea that her
webs to trap flies. They are
death is not in the past.
sticky and hard to escape
The sense of hearing is
from. The connotations are
Metaphor –
The sense
referred to throughout,
of haunted houses.
carousels are
of hearing
with death being linked to
fun and go
referred
silence. Her dying silences
In the poem,
round and
to again.
the fun in language?
metaphors are used,
round.
rather than similes.
The silence of her dying sounds through Metaphors are a more
Happy
direct comparison.
sound. the carousel of language. It’s a web
Stanza 1
(second part)
on which laughter stitches itself. How can my hand
clasp another’s when between them
A question. However,
Not thin,is that thick death, that intolerable distance? rather than looking
Word
choice.
impenetrable.
Suggests
something
being fixed, or
permanently
attached.
‘Death’ is
repeated three
times,
emphasising the
poem’s theme.
Word choice.
Connotations =
something that
is completely
unbearable.
for answers, this
The ‘intolerable question merely
distance’ is also reiterates how futile
it would be for him
perhaps
to try to make a
between him
similar connection
and his loved
with another person.
one.
Stanza 2
(first part)
As she is dying
she feels pain
that he is
suffering. The use
of nearly the
same word sets
up a balance.
The dying person
describe a balance that
can be found in nature.
Birds dive from the sun
and fish jump up
towards it. This perhaps
hints at the continuous
cycle of death and life
found in nature.
Present tense
– his wife
sounds like
she is still
alive.
She grieves for my grief. Dying, she tells me
that bird dives from the sun, that fish
leaps into it. No crocus is carved more gently
than the way her dying
shapes my mind. – But I hear, too,
Reminds the reader
of the ‘carved’ – she
shapes his mind,
creatively, like an
artist.
Word choice +
metaphor –
implies artistry
and skill in the
way it has been
crafted.
Gravestones
are carved.
Present tense.
The speaker find beauty
and is inspired
Crocuses are beautiful and
are associated with spring.
They do not last long. They
flower briefly, then are gone
Stanza 2
(second part)
Metaphor –
black is often
associated
with death, an
absence,
nothingness..
Present
tense.
The sense of hearing
referred to. The words he
hears (dark, scary) are a
stark contrast to the visual
image of the crocus.
Word choice – this
highlights the two
conflicting emotions he
is feeling.
This oxymoron
suggests how hard it is
for the speaker to put
his grief into words.
shapes my mind. – But I hear, too,
the other words,
black words that make the sound
of soundlessness, that name the nowhere
she is continuously going into.
She sounds like she is alive, until we read where
it is she is going: nowhere. The word choice of
‘continuously’ reiterates how his mourning her is
an ongoing process. The use of this word (and
the present tense) suggests that he still feels the
acute pain he felt when she was dying.
He does not think
she is in heaven; she
is “going into”
nowhere.
Stanza 3
At first it seems that he
cannot avoid the truth (of
her death) completely.
However, the use of an
oxymoron undoes this.
Elegies are
mournful
poems or
songs, usually
written to
remember the
dead.
She is the subject of the
verb – active, not
passive, despite having
passed away. Like earlier,
her dying is a continuous
process, not in past.
Again, she is in control,
acting on him: she is
making him something.
Word choice.
This word
means a
skillfully
created work
of art.
Ever since she died
she can’t stop dying. She makes me
her elegy. I am a walking masterpiece,
Oxymoron.
a true fiction
This contrasts with the
of the ugliness of death.
“beautiful mountains” and
I am her sad music.
images described earlier.
At first, it seems to not make
sense that she makes him her
elegy. Elegies are usually created
by the living for the dead.
However, the next sentence
explains how this is true.
Short sentence – creates a final, abrupt end to
the poem, like death is a final, abrupt ending to
life. Sound is conjured up again, and “sad music”
refers back to him being “her elegy”. Even in
death, she is still his muse, and helps him to
create something beautiful (the poem).
Creativity / writing
• “the carousel of language”
• “no crocus is carved more gently / than the
way her dying / shapes my mind.”
• “She makes me her elegy. I am a walking
masterpiece, / a true fiction…”
Repetition
• “dies” / “died”
• “dying”
• “death”
x3
x4
x3
• Other references to death
x5
(grieves, grief, black, elegy, memorial)
Total = 15
Tense
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“…she dies”
“her dying sounds through…”
“She grieves…”
“she tells me…”
“…she is continuously going into.”
She makes me…”
“I am her sad music.”
Oxymorons
• “the sound of soundlessness”
• “Ever since she died / she can’t stop
dying.
• “She makes me her elegy.”
• “a true fiction”
Metaphors
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“the carousel of language”
“It’s a web…”
“that thick death”
“no crocus is carved more gently”
“her dying shapes my mind”
“black words”
“She makes me her elegy. I am a walking
masterpiece, / a true fiction…”
• “I am her sad music.”
Personification
• “no lurking beautiful mountain”
• “…on which laughter stitches itself”
Sentence length
• There are long sentences throughout,
hinting at that there will be no end to his
grief.
• Short sentences bookend the poem. This
is to emphasise what is being said:
• “Everywhere she dies.”
• “I am her sad music.”
Sound
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“the silence of her dying”
“…on which laughter stitches itself”
“she tells me…”
“But I hear too, / the other words…”
“that make the sound of soundlessness”
“I am her sad music.”
Links with other MacCaig
poems?
• Death / lamenting lost things
• Finding beauty in everyday things
• Family