Kelso High School English
Department
National 5 English
Set Text - MacCaig
Aunt Julia
Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
very loud and very fast.
I could not answer her —
I could not understand her.
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.
Hers was the only house
where I've lain at night
in the absolute darkness
of a box bed, listening to
crickets being friendly.
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 teapot.
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.
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.
Norman MacCaig
Subject of the poem
• The subject of this poem is Norman MacCaig's
Aunt Julia.
• She lived in a croft on a small island in the
Outer Hebrides, speaking no English, only her
native Gaelic language.
Form
• This is an autobiographical poem so it makes
sense that the poet employs a first person
narrative stance.
• 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.
Structure
• The poem is divided into five stanzas which
each deal with a specific focus.
• Stanza One : introduces us to the subject of
the poem- Aunt Julia.
• Stanza Two - describes her physical
appearance and the objects MacCaig most
strongly associates with her.
• Stanza Three - the perspective moves away
from Julia to the way the poet felt when he
visited her.
Structure
• Stanza Four - MacCaig uses personification
to create a sense of her character.
• Stanza Five - The concluding stanza reflects
on his own frustration that he was unable to
communicate effectively with her while she
was alive, whilst at the same time expressing
his enduring affection and admiration for her.
Stanza One - Analysis
• The poem begins with a series of warmly drawn,
affectionate childhood memories.
• Opening stanza contains series of straightforward
statements. The straightforward statements and
simple language help convey that it is with the eyes
and ears of a child that he remembers Aunt Julia.
• We are introduced to the slightly eccentric
personality of his aunt with her loud, fast and
incomprehensible speech.
Stanza One - Analysis
• The use of the dash at the end of the third line
suggests that the poet has adapted the
parallelism in line 3 / 4 to make line 4
stronger.
Stanza One - Analysis
• 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.
• Technique: Repetition
• Repetition of ‘very’ highlights the inability he had to
communicate with his aunt.
• 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.
Stanza Two - Analysis
• 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 Two - Analysis
• The poet begins to create a picture of a
woman whose work is physically demanding,
both out of doors and within her house.
• Despite the fact that the author claimed he
could not “understand” her, this refers only to
her language, because his descriptions of her
reveal that he has a very clear
“understanding” of who she is, and what she
stands for.
Stanza Two - Analysis
• She is often barefoot but if shod, wears
practical men's boots and the poet clearly
admires her completing these tasks with
capability. Word choice : “She wore men’s
boots / when she wore any”
• Suggestion that she is practical.
Stanza Two - Analysis
• The strength of her character is suggested by
lexical choice – “She wore men’s boots /
when she wore any”
• Reinforced by image of “strong foot”
Stanza Two - Analysis
• The reader pictures 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 Two - Analysis
The length of the line
“paddling with the treadle of the spinning
wheel” highlights the length of time the
spinning process takes.
• Aunt Julia is always shown to be moving,
emphasising her hard-working, active nature.
Stanza Two - Analysis
• The description of her right hand :
“drew yarn/marvellously out of the
air” uses lexical choice with
“marvellously” to convey the air of
magic or illusion about the task which
was almost entrancing for the poet as
a young boy to watch.
Stanza Two - Analysis
• The use of 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 Three - Analysis
• 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.
Stanza Three - Analysis
• Again the affection he feels for her is evident
in the decision to open this stanza with the
use of the pronoun “Hers”, emphasising her
significance to him.
Stanza Three - Analysis
• Stanza 3 has no endstops creating a sense of pace
and excitement.
• The child is alone, at night, in a comparatively
strange bed – of sorts. This is often a recipe for fear,
but not in this case. The use of lexical choice in
“absolute darkness” shows how frightening it might
have been for him, but because he feels so
comfortable with his aunt, even the crickets are
regarded as friendly.
• Despite the poverty, there is a different kind of
wealth associated with this existence, a spiritual
wealth and harmony.
Stanza Four - Analysis
• 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.
• He feels that she is so close to nature that she is a
part of it.
• Stanza 4 bombards the senses with a list of three
statements, all starting the same way repetition of
“She was…” for emphasis.
Stanza Four - Analysis
• “she was winds …” again, identifies her with nature
and suggests her energy and speed.
Stanza Four - Analysis
• At the same time he remembers her through a series of
mundane domestic objects. – “She was buckets/and water
flouncing into them”
• These objects show her to be natural, traditional and careful
with money.
• Again the impression conveyed is of a woman in constant
motion: the transferred epithet used in “water flouncing”
gives a description of the deliberate, vigorous way she moved.
• This conveys an impression to the reader of how quickly and
energetically she performed her manual tasks. It also
identifies her with nature by suggesting that she was water.
Stanza Four - Analysis
• “She was brown eggs, black skirts/and a keeper of
threepenny bits” uses metaphors and listing to
provide even more details about her life.
• His aunt, despite her poverty, had a sense of pride
and dignity about her, in her dedication to her work,
her unity with the natural elements, even to the
point of saving small amounts of money so that she
could remain self-sufficient.
Stanza Four - Analysis
• 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 Five - Analysis
• The final stanza begins with the same two
lines as at the beginning of the poem: “ Aunt
Julia spoke Gaelic / very loud and very fast”.
• This provides a kind of refrain and brings the
poem neatly to a rounded end.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• 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 the absolute black / of a sandy
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.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• Word choice of ‘Absolute black’ is a reminder
of the ‘Absolute darkness’ in stanza three.
• This time the darkness is no comfort as it
represents Aunt Julia’s death.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• The tone seems almost accusatory, as if
blaming death for suffocating and stopping
her voice.
• There is an element of sadness in the fact that
he is desperate to communicate with his aunt
in her own language and learns enough – just
too late - as she dies just at the time he feels
ready. His anger is suggested by the finality of
the lexical choice in “silenced”, “absolute”
and “black”.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• This sinister, unsettling tone continues in the
use of imagery describing “the absolute
black” of her “sandy grave.”
• Unlike the comforting security of the
“absolute darkness” of the box bed in the
third stanza, the subtle shift from “absolute
darkness” to “absolute black” conveys the
frighteningly bleak void of death.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• Instead of sustaining this melancholic,
maudlin tone though, the speaker seems to
challenge the finality of death with the use of
lexical choice in the line: “But I hear her still,
welcoming me/with a seagull’s voice”.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• 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.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• The poem ends with the poet imagining her:
“and getting angry, getting angry / with so
many questions, / unanswered”
• The repetition of “angry” emphasises the
strength of the speaker’s feelings.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• The final word “unanswered” is left on a line
of its own (positioning) serving to reinforce
the speaker’s enduring sense of frustration.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• The ending of the poem is ambiguous (poetic
technique ambiguity) 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.
Stanza Five - Analysis
• 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 could suggest 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.
Theme - Isolation
• One of the main themes which emerges in this
poem is the sense of isolation felt by the
speaker, who is frustrated by his inability to
communicate effectively with this much loved
relative.
• Despite this barrier though, he shows us that
emotions can often transcend language
through the obvious, almost spiritual
connection and affection between the two.
Theme – Disappearance of this
particular way of life
• On a wider level, Julia comes to symbolise
elements of a distinct Scottish heritage,
language and culture that are at risk of
disappearing forever in the modern world.
• The final three lines give vent to his anger –
the loss of something very precious both as a
person and the symbol of his Scottish
heritage.
Characterisation – Aunt Julia
• He clearly liked and admired his Aunt Julia and
presents her as a passionate (verse 1),
welcoming (verse 5) and comforting person
(verse 3) who made him feel safe.
• Task – List appropriate quotations for each of
these.
Theme – Disappearance of a
particular way of life
• Most obviously the Gaelic language – it seems
alien as it could not be understood
• Description of features of the landscape
• The spinning wheel used for generations to
make Harris tweed
• The traditional box bed
• The use of an actual place name: Luskentyre
Theme
• The poem can be read as a lament on the
passing away of a beloved aunt, but it might
also be possible to read it as a lament on the
passing away of an entire way of life. The poet
certainly tries to give the reader a sense of
admiration for the kind of low-tech cottage
industry life that Aunt Julia lived.
• The tone of this poem is a mixture of respect,
admiration, affection, frustration and
lamentation (grief).
1. What is the effect of the structure and word choice of lines 3
and 4 in stanza 1?
2. Why is the single dash used in line 3, stanza 2?
3. How does MacCaig’s word choice build up his admiration for Aunt
Julia in stanza 2?
4. How is this admiration / pleasant memory continued with his word
choice and line structure in stanza 3?
5. Comment on the effect of the figurative language in stanza 4.
6. Why does MacCaig repeat the opening lines of the poem at the
start of the last stanza?
7. Comment on MacCaig’s use of enjambment in the final stanza.
8. What technique is MacCaig using in lines 3 and 4 of the final
stanza and what effect does this have?
9. Comment on the effectiveness of the word choice in line 5 of the
final stanza.
10. What is the effect of the imagery used in line 9 of the final
stanza?
11. What is significant about the structure of line 12 of the final
stanza and what effect does this have?
12. What do you think MacCaig means by the last two lines of the
poem? Comment both on word choice and structure.