By Norman McCaig
Questions
1. How do the opening lines act as an introduction to
Visiting Hour?
Highlights a smell familiar to us all. Can relate to
smell which represents idiosyncratic (individual)
atmosphere of a hospital.
“bobbing” shows
speaker’s feelings
of not being
“there”. Creates
impression of
boats on waves and
suggests feelings
of helplessness; he
is being carried
along.
Metaphor – the smell is so
overpowering that is becomes a
comb, touching every strands of
his senses.
The hospital smell
combs my nostrils
as they go bobbing along
green and yellow corridors
The colour of pus/vomit
stressing the unpleasantness of
the situation.
Synedoche – since not just his nostrils
are moving along, as the image would
suggest. This emphasises the
overpowering nature of “the hospital
smell”, since it has blocked out his
other senses. Smell is overpowering and
shows the vivid memory of the
hospital.
Speaker perhaps unwilling to give
into reality of situation. Use of
colours which we associate with
hospitals (+smell) reinforces
reality of situation.
Questions
1. How do the opening lines act as an introduction to
Basking Shark?
Infinitive verbs
Stanza One
Captures attention
Set at sea
Shark is in
charge
Unusual term to use for
an oar, you stub your toe.
This suggests tripping over
something, which
highlights a theme of the
poem, the idea that this is
the shark’s territory, not
the human who belongs
on land.
Metaphor comparing the
shark to a rock – bulky/solid
without feeling or
intelligence
To stub an oar on a rock where none should be,
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me.
Slounge – onomatopoeia –
noise of waves, clumsy
movement
Although the poet is
frightened he tries to inject
humour to make light of the
situation
Poem
Central Concern of the text
(this means the message).
Themes
Feelings
Imagery (are there any
similar images)
Tone / Mood
Word Choice (similar ideas,
made up words)
Structure
Turning Point
Any other things
Poem 1
Poem 2
Poem 3
Poem 4
Comparing Questions
1.How does the poet feel?
2.What is the turning point of the poem?
3.How is the setting shown?
Visiting hour
Basking Shark
Themes (1)
Anger – that he can do
nothing in the face of death
Nature - Rise with a slounge
out of the sea.
Existence
Himself
Themes (2)
Facing Reality –
Understanding the impact of
death and loss and that we as a
species are not immortal.
Imagery (1)
Decay
A withered hand trembles on
its stalk
Facing Reality –
Understanding that we as a
species are the ones who cause
the most death and destruction.
That we are not the masters of
evolution.
Central Concern of the text
Tone / Mood
Word Choice (1)
Word Choice (2)
Structure (1)
Facing up to mortality
Reflection
Striking words
“Guzzling”
Turning point - Ward 7
Who is the monster?
Reflection
Serious with humour
shoggled
Turning Point - Moves from
observation to reflection
The 8 Mark Question
Example:
MacCaig is a highly emotive poet. With close textual reference, show
how the poet’s emotions are made clear in the language and / or ideas
of this poem and at least one other MacCaig poem which you have
studied.
Technique:
• Bullet point your answers.
• Try to discuss both the similarities and the differences in his poems.
• Choose a quotation and analyse is from the extract given. Do this twice.
• Choose a quotation and analyse it from outwith the extract given. Do this
once.
• Choose a quotation and analyse it from at least one other of MacCaig’s
poems. I recommend focussing on two. Do this three times.
Example answer using the first stanza as the extract given in the exam. This answer would achieve full marks easily.
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In both Memorial and Visiting Hour the poet’s sadness is clear.
Memorial is a lament for the dead and therefore in its very nature it is sad. Its themes deal with the sense of loss that
pervades every aspect of his life.
Memorial - “Everywhere she dies. Everywhere” is repeated to reinforce the suffocating sense of loss felt. In the same line:
“Everywhere I go she dies.” “I go” helps us to understand that the poet cannot escape awareness of the death of his loved
one. These statements are simple, direct and matter of fact. Which reflect how brutal the realisation of his loss has been
for him. The juxtaposition of the “I” and the “she” immediately informs us of the bond between the speaker and the
subject of the poem. He is clearly devastated by this death.
Memorial - MacCaig finishes the stanza on a deeply pessimistic note reflecting his sadness. His use of a rhetorical question
(asking how his hand can “clasp another's” when death separates them) shows how lost he is. He is left alone and
questioning. Death is described as that “intolerable distance” he seems unable to cope with the loneliness.
Memorial - The final simple line of the poem sums up his sadness: “I am her sad music.” This hopelessly pessimistic note
again emphasises the ceaseless, all-encompassing nature of the grief and sorrow that consume him and pervade every
aspect of his consciousness.
Visiting Hour – The speaker visits someone dying. He tries to maintain his composure in order to prevent transmitting his
worry and fear to the person he is visiting. The poet is not only in a sad circumstance but feels sad for those who have to
work surrounded by death. The parallel structure of “so much pain, so/many deaths” and “so many farewells” emphasises
the emotional strain of the nurses’ job. This, like the word choice, helps us to understand the speaker’s incredulity at the
way the nurses are able to function so efficiently when surrounded by so much pain and suffering.
Visiting Hour - The patient’s hand seems fragile, MacCaig’s word choice detailing how it is “withered” and “trembles”
shows his pain at watching someone so weak. By comparing her body to a dying flower he conveys how brittle and frail she
is now, as well as hinting at her past vitality.
Visiting Hour - The final image of the books and the oxymoronic “fruitless fruits”, stand as reminders of the proximity of
death. Just as the speaker attaches negative connotations to the patient in the lift and the needle in the patient’s arm, so
he recognises the pointlessness of the gifts left for the patient. He feels helpless and the inevitability of death is recognised.
In both poems the poet is surrounded by death and is overcome by sadness.