Norman MacCaig
The Scottish Text
Aunt Julia
Poem 1
We are learning to:
 Identify and explain the main ideas and supporting details of a
text
 Apply knowledge and understanding of language to explain
meaning and effect, using appropriate critical terminology
Context
•
Norman MacCaig's Aunt Julia lived
on Scalpay, a small island off the
coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.
•
Aunt Julia lived a traditional,
hardworking life on a croft and she
spoke only her native Gaelic
language.
•
MacCaig sometimes described
himself as three quarters Gaelic –
three of his grandparents were
Gaels and his mother came from
the same small island.
•
He was born and brought up in
Edinburgh, however, and knew
Scalpay only from visits.
•
He developed a deep affinity with
the people, landscape and culture
of Gaelic north-west Scotland from
his visits there.
Context cont.
• As is evident in the poem, MacCaig felt a
strong attachment to his Aunt Julia despite
the language barrier that existed between
them and this is one of the most memorable
of his studies of Highland characters.
Representation of Aunt Julia
• Julia is next depicted in a series of striking
metaphors that show how the young
narrator connects her with elements of
nature: with the earth, with water and with
air.
• The last stanza introduces a tone of regret
before ending with a picture of the larger
than life character calling to him
still getting angry, getting angry/with so
many questions unanswered.
Tone of Regret
• The reason for this regret is that only after
Julia's death did the poet learn enough
Gaelic to be able to communicate with her.
• Hence all the questions that he would have
asked to her must now remain unanswered,
just as her questions to him as a child had
been.
Form and Structure
• This is an autobiographical (both a PERSONAL and
EXPERIENCE poem) poem so it makes sense that the
poet employs a first person narrative stance.
• Like all MacCaig poetry, part of its success lies in his
skill of using accessible language in an incredibly
skilful and effective way.
•
Writing in free verse helps to create a conversational
style and tone, while the use of enjambment and
repetition allow him to emphasise key aspects of the
poem.
Form and Structure cont.
•
The poem is divided into five stanzas which each deal with a specific focus:
Stanza 1 – a child’s
memory of his aunt /
main recollection is her
language – Gaelic –
which he could not
understand.
Stanza 2 – describes his
aunt and how she
seemed strange to him,
for example, barefoot or
wearing men’s boots /
his descriptions give
insights into her way of
life.
Stanza 3 – he recalls
the strange
experience of
sleeping in a box bed.
Stanza 4 – vivid
images capture
aspects of her life e.g.
carrying buckets of
water as there is no
running water.
Stanza 5 –
by the time
he learned
some
Gaelic, it
was too late
to
communica
te with his
Aunt: she
had died.
Stanza 1
She appears
to be very
extrovert
and not shy.
Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
Very loud and very fast.
I could not answer her –
I could not understand
her.
Repetition
emphasises
MacCaig’s
helplessness.
Gaelic – a Celtic language spoken in the
highlands of Scotland
She was
different, as
Gaelic is not a
common
language.
This poem is in free
verse which
corresponds with aunt
Julia’s eccentricity
and unpredictability.
Stanza 1
• The poem begins with a series of warmly drawn,
affectionate childhood memories.
• Aunt Julia speaks Gaelic very loud and very fast. The
speaker states I could not answer her, I could not
understand her, immediately establishing one of the
main themes - frustration at barriers in communication.
• However, despite this language barrier he goes onto
draw a picture of a strong, capable and passionate
woman who created a haven of safety and security in
her house for the young boy.
Stanza 1
•
Clarity and lucidity were qualities MacCaig constantly worked for
in his poetry and they are evident in this opening stanza with its
series of straightforward statements.
•
The poem has freshness and charm which stems from the fact it is
with the eyes and ears of a child that he remembers Aunt Julia.
•
The repetition of I could not reinforces the idea of the barrier in
communication.
•
However, despite this inability to understand or be understood,
the tone is affectionate and emphasises that, even without a
common language, strong bonds can be created.
•
Already in this vivid description we have the impression of Julia as
a dynamic, vigorous and forceful character.
Peat: an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation which
forms in wetlands such as bogs
Treadle: rocking lever operated by the foot to drive a spinning
wheel
Aunt Julia is
quirky and
unconventional
She wore men’s boots
When she wore any.
- I can see her strong foot,
Stained with peat,
Paddling with the treadle of the
spinning wheel
While her right hand drew yarn
Marvellously out of the air.
He is in awe of
her and
admires her.
She is burly,
and shows a
sense of
power and
strength.
Stanza 2
Yarn:
continuous
twisted strand
fibre produced
on a spinning
wheel.
Stanza 2
• The poet begins to create a picture of a woman who
lives a life close to the soil in this rural landscape.
• Her work is physically demanding, both out of doors and
within her house. She is often barefoot but if shod, wears
practical men's boots and the poet clearly admires her
completing these tasks with capability.
• We see her engaged in one of the duties of her domestic
life, spinning. This is a skill heavily associated with island
life since Harris is famous for producing tweed.
Stanza 2
• The long line paddling with the treadle of the
spinning wheel serves to accentuate the
lengthiness of the spinning process and
creates a sense of movement and activity
which MacCaig also associates with his aunt.
• In almost every description of her in the poem
she is either in motion or speaking,
emphasising the shocking silent finality of her
death in the final stanza.
Stanza 2
• As he continues to recall the spinning process, the
description of her right hand drew
yarn/marvellously out of the air conveys the air of
magic or illusion about the task which was almost
entrancing for the young boy watching.
• The long vowels in her hand drew yarn elongates
the line and helps to convey the impression of the
wool being stretched out and made taut.
• The use of the present tense throughout this stanza
creates a sense of immediacy and shows how
vividly and readily he can still access these
memories.
Stanza 3
Hers was the only house
Where I’ve lain at night
In the absolute darkness
Of a box bed, listening to
Crickets being friendly.
Box bed: bed built into a recess in
a traditional Highland cottage,
separated from the main room by
a curtain or wooden panel.
The ‘darkness’
and friendly
crickets
contrast
Despite the darkness
and primitive
accommodation, he
feels secure and safe
No
punctuation –
shows
excitement.
Stanza 3
• In stanza three we see clearly that the language
barrier was surmounted by an instinctive bond
between the speaker and his aunt.
• As a result the young boy feels safe and secure in
the dark island of the box bed in Aunt Julia’s home.
It is enclosed and comforting and he vividly
remembers lying in the absolute darkness listening
to crickets being friendly.
•
Again the affection he feels for her is evident in the
decision to open this stanza with the pronoun Hers,
emphasising her significance to him.
Stanza 4
She was buckets
And water flouncing into
them.
She was winds pouring wetly
Round house-ends.
She was brown eggs, black
skirts
And a keeper of
threepennybits
In a tea pot.
Aunt Julia combines the
strength of nature and the
security of a domestic home.
He compare to a
series of metaphors –
to do with nature
and things of a home
(clothing and money)
It is a hard life, she
did not have much
money but worked
very hard.
Threepennybit: old eight-sided pre-decimal coin (worth
around 1p)
Stanza 4
•
In stanza four, MacCaig employs personification to compare his aunt
both with the elements he associates with this landscape, the wind and
water, and within the objects and garments that for him are most
evocative of her.
•
She appears to him to be vivid, larger than life, and so connected with
the landscape itself she becomes part of it.
•
The observations are those of a child, fascinated by both the curious and
the ordinary.
•
In the poet's memory Julia becomes intertwined with the natural forces
of wind and rain, in the description of the winds pouring wetly/round
house-ends. At the same time he remembers her through a series of
mundane domestic objects. She was buckets/and water flouncing into
them and also brown eggs, black skirts/and a keeper of threepenny bits.
•
Again the impression conveyed is of a woman in constant motion: the
transferred epithet used in the flouncing water gives a description of the
deliberate, vigorous way she moved.
Stanza 4
• These metaphors seem to extend beyond merely describing
Julia as an individual in order to use her as a symbol
associated with, or representative of, the particular landscape,
lifestyle and culture of this geographical area.
• Aunt Julia, then, epitomises the specific way of life of the
crofting islanders who worked the land in a harsh, unforgiving
climate.
• Despite the arduousness of this lifestyle, there is a pride and
honesty in it, which the speaker obviously admires. Julia could
even be taken to symbolise the land and elements themselves
in this part of the world – difficult at times, yet ultimately
providing an honest, noble self-sufficient existence.
Stanza 5
Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
Very loud and very fast.
By the time I had
learned
A little, she lay
Silenced in the absolute
black
Of a sandy grave
At Luskentyre.
Luskentyre – tiny village with spectacular
sandy beach on the island of Harris.
It is too late by the time
he had learnt his aunties
language. He cannot
communicate with her.
Death =
Darkness
Shorter lines with
more pauses for
thought. Change of
atmosphere –
disappointment and
sadness.
Stanza 5
But I hear her still, welcoming
me
With a seagull’s voice
Across a hundred yards
Of peatscrapes and lazybeds
And getting angry, getting
angry
With so many questions
unanswered.
Lazybeds: traditional way of growing
crops in small patches of soil using
ridges of soil.
Her words are
incomprehensible. But she
still lives through nature, as
he still hears her through
the ‘seagull’s voice’.
Both are getting angry.
Aunt Julia is angry because
he could not answer her
questions. But he is
frustrated because he could
not get to know her better.
Stanza 5
• The final stanza opens by repeating the opening lines of the
poem: Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic/very loud and very fast.
• However a darker tone enters the poem at this point. By the
time MacCaig had learned a little Gaelic, his aunt was dead,
lying silenced in her grave.
• The contrast between the loud, talkative vibrant Aunt Julia in
life and the utter, absolute quiet of death is emphasised using
enjambment to position silenced at the opening of line five.
• The tone seems almost accusatory, as if blaming death for
suffocating and stopping her voice.
Stanza 5
•
This sinister, unsettling tone continues in describing the absolute
black of her grave.
•
Unlike the comforting security of the absolute darkness of the box
bed in the third stanza, the subtle shift from
darkness to black conveys the frighteningly bleak void of death.
•
Instead of sustaining this melancholic, maudlin tone though, the
speaker seems to challenge the finality of death in the line: But I
hear her still, welcoming me/with a seagull’s voice She has left
such a strong impression on him he can still vividly imagine her
calling to him in welcome. Her voice is loud, carrying across a
hundred yards and shrill like a seagull’s piercing cry.
•
Again, the metaphor used connects her to the natural world
which played such a huge part in her life. The poem ends with the
poet imagining her: getting angry, getting angry, with so many
questions, unanswered.
Stanza 5
•
The final word is left on a line of its own, serving to reinforce the speakers
enduring sense of frustration.
•
The ending of the poem is somewhat ambiguous and could be interpreted in
a number of ways.
•
The questions he alludes to could represent, literally, her questions to the boy,
which he was unable to answer as he had no Gaelic, or they could represent
all the questions he would have loved to ask but was unable to until it was too
late.
•
Moving beyond the literal, the questions could represent the more universal
queries we all have about the meaning and mysteries of life itself.
•
The repetition of the word angry in these final three lines suggests MacCaig is
warning us to hold onto and cherish the culture and heritage of the island way
of life. He is afraid if we allow it to die, like Aunt Julia, then it too will be lost
forever.
Links to other poems
• Because of its PERSONAL and EXPERIENCE related content –
Aunt Julia can be linked to all of the other 5 poems:
 Basking Shark – both poems describe an experience / a
character vividly
 Visiting Hour – both poems describe a female relative and the
feelings related to them
 Memorial – both poems explore the themes of loss and feelings
of grief
 Sounds of the Day – both poems explore the theme of loss
 Assisi – both poems utilise vivid imagery when describing a
character / person