English Department
National 5 Specified Texts:
Norman MacCaig
Revision Booklet
The poet is visiting a very ill relative in hospital, and tries to avoid his emotions on his
way to the ward.
When he arrives, he is overcome by grief and anguish, and leaves the visit feeling it
has been pointless.
Visiting Hour
Word choice: “hospital smell” is something everyone is
familiar with.
The hospital smell
Metaphor: the smell is overpowering – it becomes a comb brushing
through nose hair. Poet establishes a playful mood to begin with.
combs my nostrils
as they go bobbing along
Synechdoche: Of course, not just his nostrils are moving along, as
green and yellow corridors.
the image would suggest. This emphasises the powerful nature of
“the hospital smell”, since it has blocked out his other senses.
What seems a corpse
is trundled into a lift and vanishes
heavenward.
I will not feel, I will not
feel, until
I have to.
Nurses walk lightly, swiftly,
Word choice: colours have connotations of sickness,
which further stresses the poet’s discomfort in these
surroundings.
Enjambment/word choice: poet uses
enjambment to highlight words associated
with death.
Repetition: Poet seems to be chanting to himself – trying to
control his emotions.
Structure: the unusual word order is emphasising
the number of nurses he sees and their activity.
here and up and down and there,
their slender waists miraculously
carrying their burden
of so much pain, so
many deaths, their eyes
Word choice/repetition: poet admires the difficult
job nurses have facing death regularly.
“Miraculously” suggests he cannot understand
how they do it. Repetition of “so” stresses the
frequency of the nurses’ unpleasant dealings.
still clear after
so many farewells.
STRUCTURE : Free verse used throughout poem
in order to better convey poet’s confused
emotions.
TONE: The tone in the poem changes. Begins
nervously/humorously then shifts to sadness
when faced with patient.
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Structure: A minor sentence (non-sentence) draws attention to this turning point in the
poem. The speaker has arrived at his destination.
Metaphor: suggesting the white curtains or sheets are
cave-like. This shows the isolation of the woman, and
the poet’s exclusion from her.
Ward 7. She lies
in a white cave of forgetfulness.
A withered hand
Metaphor: suggesting the woman’s body is brittle and
frail, by comparing it to a dying flower.
trembles on its stalk. Eyes move
behind eyelids too heavy
Word choice: “withered”, “trembles”, “wasted” all
suggest the patient is close to death.
to raise. Into an arm wasted
of colour a glass fang is fixed,
Metaphor/alliteration: suggesting the intravenous drip is
vampire-like. The horror in this image is shocking, which
shows the poet’s grief.
not guzzling but giving.
And between her and me
distance shrinks till there is none left
but the distance of pain that neither she nor I
can cross.
Metaphor: contrast in colours highlights distance
between patient and visitor. “Black figure” could relate
to grim reaper- returning to death theme.
She smiles a little at this
black figure in her white cave
who clumsily rises
in the round swimming waves of a bell
and dizzily goes off, growing fainter,
not smaller, leaving behind only
books that will not be read
Enjambment: Poet uses the gap between lines
to emphasise distance between patient and
visitor.
Word choice: Bell rings to mark end of visiting hour.
“clumsily”, “dizzily” “swimming waves”, all suggest
poet is struggling with emotions.
Pun: “growing fainter,” suggests both that he is
growing fainter in the vision of the patient but also that
the poet feels faint.
and fruitless fruits.
Paradox/oxymoron: the patient’s inability to eat the fruit or read the
books establishes their utter lack of life. The paradox highlights how
desperate and hopeless the speaker’s situation is and ends on a sad
note of despair.
KEY THEMES
 Facing Death (either the dying person, or the relative)
 Isolation surrounding death/illness
THEMES CONNECT WITH: Assisi, Aunt Julia, Memorial, Sounds of the Day
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On a holiday to Assisi, the poet Norman MacCaig goes on a guided tour of the church
dedicated to St Francis of Assisi.
A beggar sits outside the Church of St Francis and is ignored by the priest and tourists who
are looking at Giotto's famous frescoes.
MacCaig wonders why the priest is looking after the needs of the tourists and is ignoring the
needs of the dwarf. He realises that the spirit of St Francis is not found inside the church, or
in the priest but in the inner beauty of the dwarf.
Assisi
The dwarf with his hands on backwards
sat, slumped like a half-filled sack
on tiny twisted legs from which
sawdust might run,
outside the three tiers of churches built
Word choice/Imagery: Poem begins with a negative
and demeaning description of beggar. From the very
start of the poem, “hands on backwards” catches the
reader’s attention as it seems wrong. Highlights his
deformities. Simile comparison to “half-filled sack”
suggests he is less human- a discarded object.
Metaphor: continues idea of dwarf as inanimate
object. He is an object that is falling apart.
Contrast/juxtaposition: Poet contrasts broken
structure of beggar with powerful structure of
church.
in honour of St Francis, brother
of the poor, talker with birds, over whom
he had the advantage
of not being dead yet.
A priest explained
how clever it was of Giotto
to make his frescoes tell stories
Contrast/juxtaposition: Poet lists great
achievements of St. Francis in order to further
contrast between Saint and beggar. Use of the
word “yet” is a reminder that the only advantage
beggar has over Saint will soon be gone.
Hypocrisy: Inside the church, the priest
tells simplified versions of Bible stories to
satisfy tourists. He is a hypocrite as he
should be helping the suffering of the
beggar outside.
that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness
of God and the suffering
of His Son. I understood
the explanation and
Bitter tone: The speaker is unimpressed by
the efforts of the priest to discuss the
paintings. “cleverness” highlighted at end of
line- ironic as the speaker does not think it is
very clever.
the cleverness.
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A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,
fluttered after him as he scattered
Metaphor: comparing priest to farmer
scattering seed for chickens. This
negative image suggests the tourists
have no personality and are unable to
think for themselves.
the grain of the Word. It was they who had passed
the ruined temple outside, whose eyes
Metaphor: dwarf now directly juxtaposed
with church, “ruined temple”.
wept pus, whose back was higher
than his head, whose lopsided mouth
said Grazie in a voice as sweet
as a child's when she speaks to her mother
or a bird's when it spoke
Structure: Poet lists a number of
deformities the beggar has to further
highlight his ugliness. This contrasts with
the list of achievements of St. Francis in
verse 1.
Simile: comparing the dwarf to a child is one of
innocence- he is to be pitied. Despite all the
horrific deformities of the dwarf, he has inner
beauty which is unexpected.
to St Francis.
Structure: The poet ends with St. Francis as the
final image. A reminder that his message of
helping the poor appears to have been lost.
STRUCTURE : Free verse used throughout poem
in order to better convey poet’s experience.
Verse 1 – The dwarf
Verse 2 – The priest
Verse 3 – The tourists – and back to the dwarf
TONE: Bitter and cynical towards the church and
tourists.
KEY THEMES
• The Church - hypocrisy
• isolation of the disabled/ill
• Inner and outer beauty
• Social contrast/injustice
THEMES CONNECT WITH: Visiting Hour
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The poet imagines himself in a rowing boat out at sea. It is raining.
He hits what he thinks is a rock, but it is actually a basking shark. The shark rises out of the
water.
This experience makes the poet think about where he (and all humans) came from. Although
the shark is huge in size, it is not as dangerous as humans can be.
Basking Shark
Repetition: “To stub”, “to have”, adds drama to
opening shock felt by poet.
Metaphor: Comparison
suggests both force and also
inanimate nature of shark.
To stub an oar on a rock where none should be,
Word choice: onomatopoeic “slounge”
suggests sheer size of shark
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me.
Structure: use of brackets and dash suggests
informal chatty tone. Ultimately he sees the
experience as positive.
But not too often - though enough. I count as gain
That once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain,
Word choice: “met” suggests he is no longer
shocked. “tin-tacked” uses alliteration and
metaphor to create effective image of shower.
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain.
He displaced more than water. He shoggled me
Centuries back - this decadent townee
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.
Exaggeration: “roomsized,”Contrasts with
“matchbox brain”. Shows the poet’s humour that
although large, these sharks are not dangerous.
Word choice: The shark’s movement causes the
water to move violently shifting the boat. The poet
is also saying that the shark has caused him to
question his place in evolution. “shoggled” and
“townee” are informal words creating a humorous
self-mocking tone. He sees himself as a “townee”,
rejecting the natural world.
Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring
Is all the clearer. I saw me, in one fling,
Emerging from the slime of everything.
Word choice: Takes the poet back to the origins of all
life; we are all part of the slime. ‘slime’ emphasises the
baseness of the beginning.
So who's the monster? The thought made
me grow pale
For twenty seconds while, sail after sail,
The tall fin slid away and then the tail.
STRUCTURE : The poet uses rhyming
triplets in this poem.
TONE: This rhyme adds a light-hearted
tone to the poem. The tone only
changes to a more fearful, serious tone
in the final verse, “So who’s the
monster?”
Structure: Rhetorical question
The poet is left unsettled, asking questions about
evolution and who the real monster is. He is saying that
the real monster is human civilisation.
Final lines use punctuation to highlight beauty of shark.
Compares shark to a ship’s sail. Poet’s opinion of shark
has changed throughout poem.
KEY THEMES
 Nature and man’s connection to nature
 Man’s position within evolution
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THEMES CONNECT WITH: Aunt Julia, Memorial, Sounds of
the Day
This poem is an elegy, a poem that is a lament for the dead, for a beloved person in MacCaig’s life.
That person is probably MacCaig’s sister, Frances, who died in 1968 as this poem was published in
1971.
Memorial is a sad poem about how the sense of loss of the poet’s dear one pervades every aspect of
his life. Her death, he makes clear, stays with him constantly.
As an atheist, there were no easy comforts for him; no promises of life or resurrection beyond the
grave. For him death presented an awful finality.
Repetition: Poet uses repetition of
“Everywhere” and “No” to create a
striking opening to the poem. These
words emphasise the vast and allencompassing effect of this death on the
poet.
Memorial
Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
Metaphor/paradox: Poet uses paradox to
show this silence is so intense it impacts as
a loud noise would.
As a poet, words are hugely important but
what he saw as a fun, bright, colourful and
musical ride is now silenced by her death.
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?
Word choice: “thick” suggests it is surrounding
him, like a fog perhaps. It also emphasises the
distance that keeps him apart from others.
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
Metaphor: Her death is now a web- he is
unable to free himself from its hold. The
word “stitches” suggests this hold is very
strong.
Enjambment: Poet indicates the “intolerable
distance” by separating this over many lines to
show distance between himself and who he has
lost.
Paradox: Does not immediately make sense. She
feels sorry for the loss he will feel.
Metaphor: Compares her death to a crocus flowerbeautiful, natural and fragile.
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than the way her dying
shapes my mind. – But I hear, too,
the other words,
black words that make the sound
Tone/structure: Poet changes tone here to a bleak
and dark tone of hopelessness.
Word choice/paradox: ibecomes much darker- these
black words suggest a nothingness- the poet
believes there is nothing after death.
of soundlessness, that name the nowhere
she is continuously going into.
Ever since she died
Paradox: Does not immediately make sense,
just like death. Poet is saying that he is
eternally dying in his thoughts.
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.
Metaphor: Poet compares himself to being a
written lament- he himself has become a record
of her death.
“masterpiece” is a strange word choice as a
masterpiece is traditionally seen as perfect.
“true fiction” is a paradox as fiction cannot be
true. The poet uses these confusing contrasts to
emphasise his confused state in losing her.
STRUCTURE : Free verse used throughout poem in order
to better convey poet’s confused emotions over her death.
TONE: The tone remains sorrowful throughout. The only
hint of optimism lies in the beauty he sees in her death“crocus carved more gently”(stanza 2).
KEY THEMES
 Facing Death (either the dying person, or the relative)
 Isolation surrounding death/illness
THEMES CONNECT WITH: Assisi, Aunt Julia, Visiting Hour, Sounds of the Day
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The speaker in Sounds of the Day reflects upon a parting. The poem opens with natural sounds,
while the sound of a closing door signals the opening of the second stanza and turns the poem
from the pleasant picture of nature towards a darker, more reflective focus.
Sound techniques: Poet uses a range of sound
techniques to emphasise the vitality and energy of
nature.
Onomatopoiea: “clatter”, “creaked”, “snuffling
puff”.
Alliteration: “Clatter came”, “snuffling puff”.
Assonance: “blocking”, unblocking”, “rock”.
Nature is shown to be alive and full of sound in
contrast to the next stanza.
Sounds of the day
When a clatter came,
it was horses crossing the ford.
When the air creaked, it was
a lapwing seeing us off the premises
of its private marsh. A snuffling puff
ten yards from the boat was the tide blocking and
unblocking a hole in a rock.
Metaphor: Black drums create a strong
image of a storm coming; colour
represents grief and death, while drums
rolling create sense of impending doom.
When the black drums rolled, it was water
falling sixty feet into itself.
When the door
Metaphor: The poet uses the closing of the door to
mark the end of a relationship.
The word “scraped” is an unpleasant painful example
of onomatopoeia to mark an end to all sounds.
scraped shut, it was the end
of all the sounds there are.
You left me
beside the quietest fire in the world.
I thought I was hurt in my pride only,
Word choice: poet exaggerates using extremes, “end of all
sounds,” to intensify impact of loss he is feeling.
Structure: Poet uses a single sentence to add impact to
this statement. Enjambment used effectively to add
directness in the line “You left me”. Poet again uses
exaggeration in “quietest fire”. Paradox of a fire that
makes no noise adds to this image of loss and loneliness.
Metaphor: Stark contrast in imagery; here it is
frozen water in comparison to the flowing, living
water of stanza one.
“bangle of ice” helps to capture and describe the
intensity of the raw and painful sense of loss
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experienced . Just as a bangle is restrictive
and
remains with you, so too does the feeling of loss.
forgetting that,
when you plunge your hand in freezing water,
you feel
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.
Julia is 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. 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.
a bangle of ice round your wrist
before the whole hand goes numb.
Word choice/repetition: Poet begins with affectionate
childhood memories of Aunt. Repetition of “very” and “I
could not” highlight the inability he had to communicate
with his Aunt.
KEY THEMES
 Facing Death (either the dying person, or the relative)
 Nature and man’s connection to nature
Aunt Julia
THEMES CONNECT WITH: Aunt Julia, Visiting Hour, Sounds of the Day, Memorial
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.
Word choice: The fact that she “wears men’s boots when
she wore any” suggests a woman that is practical. Her
work is physically demanding, both out of doors and
within her house.
Structure: The long line “paddling with… 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.
— I can see her strong foot,
stained with peat,
paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel
while her right hand drew yarn
Word choice: “drew yarn marvellously
out of the air” conveys the sense of
magic or illusion about the task in the
eyes of the poet as a child.
marvellously out of the air.
Hers was the only house
Word choice: The poet shows affection in his
description of his Aunt. Despite the typically
frightening “absolute darkness”, the poet
seems very comfortable and safe. Indeed the
crickets are shown to be “friendly”.
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where I've lain at night
in the absolute darkness
of a box bed, listening to
crickets being friendly.
STRUCTURE : 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.
TONE: The tone of the poem is largely admiration for the
poet’s Aunt. The closing stanza uses a tone of anger and regret
for missed opportunities.
Metaphor: The poet feels his Aunt is so close to
She was buckets
nature that she is a part of it. She is shown to be
linked directly to both the wind and the rain.
and water flouncing into them.
She was winds pouring wetly
round house-ends.
She was brown eggs, black skirts
Word choice: The poet also links Julia to a
collection of simple domestic objects. These
objects show her to be natural, traditional and
careful with money.
and a keeper of threepennybits
Repetition: The poet returns to the opening lines
of the poem, indicating the beginning of a
conclusion to the poem.
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
Tone: The tone changes here to one of regret and
frustration.
Word choice: In contrast to the liveliness and activity of
Julia’s working life, death has silenced her. “absolute
black” is a reminder of the “absolute darkness” in stanza
3. This time the darkness is of no comfort.
at Luskentyre. But I hear her still, welcoming me
with a seagull's voice
Word choice: Julia is still so connected to nature
that he hears her in the sounds of nature, even
after death.
across a hundred yards
of peatscrapes and lazybeds
Repetition: The repetition of the word “angry” in these
final three lines suggests MacCaig is very frustrated. He
is both angry at the questions left by the death of his
Aunt but he is also mourning the death of a traditional
Scottish way of life. Here he is warning us to hold onto
the culture and heritage of the island way of life. He is
10 it too will
afraid if we allow it to die, like Aunt Julia, then
be lost forever.
and getting angry, getting angry
with so many questions
unanswered.
KEY THEMES
 Facing Death (either the dying person, or the relative)
 Nature and man’s connection to nature
THEMES CONNECT WITH: Visiting Hour, Sounds of the Day, Memorial, Basking Shark
Some Useful Definitions
Allegory
Alliteration
Ambiguity
Analogy
Assonance
Caesura
Cliché
Contrast
Enjambment
Free Verse
Hyperbole
Imagery
Juxtaposition
A story in verse or prose, with a double meaning,
which can be read and understood on two levels.
The use of the same initial letter in two or more words
in close proximity to create a particular effect,
usually intensifying the words. Sometimes the sound
of the repeated initial letter adds to the effect.
When a piece of language can be interpreted in
more than one way; often used for humorous effect.
An agreement in certain respects between things
which are otherwise different.
The repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close
together, to create the effect of the sound of the
particular vowel used.
A break or pause in a line of poetry, often marked
by punctuation
An idiom or figure of speech (often a metaphor or
simile) which has lost its impact through being overused.
Bringing two objects together to show the difference
The continuation of a line of poetry without a break.
Poetry that does not have end rhymes or follow a set
rhythm.
Exaggeration to emphasise the sense of the words
Figurative or descriptive language, often, but not
necessarily metaphorical to give heightened
meaning, reveal feelings etc.
Bringing two ideas close together for literary effect,
usually contrast.
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Mood
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Pun
Personification
Repetition
Rhyme
Rhythm
Stanza
Structure
Synecdoche
Symbolism
Synaesthesia
Theme
Tone
Verse
Word Choice
Feelings of poet/narrator and/or the way the poet
makes you feel when you read the poem.
A figure of speech in which the sound of the word
reflects the sound being described.
A figure of speech in which two words with opposite
meanings are brought together to form a new
phrase or statement.
An apparently contradictory statement
A play in words that are alike or nearly alike in sound
but different in meaning, often for comic effect.
The attribution of human qualities to inanimate
objects
When a word of phrase is repeated to create a
particular effect, usually to emphasis the idea
contained in the words being repeated.
When the sounds at the ends of lines agree with
each other.
The pattern of sounds created by a poet’s choice
and arrangement of words.
A group of lines in a poem, forming a definite
pattern of rhyme and metre throughout the poem.
How the poem is laid out, with a beginning, middle
and an end.
A figure of speech in which a part is used to refer to
the whole.
A symbol is an object, animate or inanimate, which
represents something else, with which it has some
connection. A literary symbol has the effect of
combining an image with an idea.
The mixing of sensations; the appeal to more than
one sense at the same time, e.g. “a black look”.
The main subject(s) or message of a poem.
The poet’s or speaker’s attitude to his subject,
conveyed by the style of writing. Think of the tone o
voice you would use if you were saying the words
aloud.
A group of lines which forms a unit in Free Verse,
where there is no overall pattern of rhyme or metre.
The actual words chosen by the poet to create a
particular or striking effect.
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