“Visiting Hour” by Norman MacCaig

Learning Intentions I will: Develop my understanding of MacCaig’s work by studying, in detail, the techniques used by the poet and their effectiveness within the poem “Visiting Hour”. Identify the writer’s main theme and recognise how it relates to my own and others’ experiences Identify and make a personal evaluation of the effect of aspects of the writer’s style and other features appropriate to genre using some relevant evidence and terminology.

A closer look - Structure Written in free verse – reflects the poet’s confusion and narrative style of the text. The reader shares his experience. Stanzas 1-3 are short, staccato and create a sense of place, atmosphere and the poet’s feelings Stanza 4 – sense of busy hospital Stanza 5 – main action, sense of hush in the presence of dying woman. Stanza 6 – opening of floodgates of poet’s emotions in face of his inevitable loss.

as they go bobbing along green and yellow corridors Highlights a smell familiar to us all. Can relate to smell which represents idiosyncratic atmosphere of hospital. Metaphor – the smell is so overpowering that it becomes a comb, touching every strands of senses. “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. The hospital smell combs my nostrils as they go bobbing along green and yellow corridors 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.

Supports feeling of hopelessness. Immediately confronted by what hospitals are potentially about – death. Use of enjambment emphasise last words of the verse – suggests a finality in death. Word choice (and onomatopoeia) – conveys noise of trolley, emotionless way it is handled. Supports feeling of hopelessness. Word choice – holds little relation to life, dehumanised. Harsh sound – guttural “c” and plosive “p” – shows the poet’s distress at what he is seeing What seems a corpse is trundled into a lift and vanishes heavenward. Word choice – avoiding emotions, trying to create humour in the seriousness of the situation

Use of repetition and enjambment – sense of chanting under his breath His emotions begin to break and he tries to keep them under control. I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have to. Use of repetition and enjambment – sense of chanting under his breath

Tries to occupy his mind – but this still turns to death. Inversion (unusual syntax) – suggest number of nurses, randomness of their jobs and the need to react to what is happening Tries to occupy his mind – but this still turns to death. Nurses walk lightly, swiftly, here and up and down and there, their slender waists miraculously carrying their burden of so much pain, so many deaths, their eyes still clear after so many farewells. Word choice – suggest admiration for their physical labour and how they are able to cope. Shows own worry. Repetition (and alliteration) of “so” – stresses the frequency of the nurses unpleasant dealings. Supports high esteem (and envy?) he holds them in. Word choice underlines purpose of visit. Suggestion of meeting again – desire to believe in an afterlife.

Metaphor – isolation of woman and poet. Caesura – jolts the reader. Turning point of the poem. Must now face his emotions Arrives at the ward – shocked by what he sees. Ward 7. She lies in a white cave of forgetfulness. A withered hand trembles on its stalk. Eyes move behind eyelids too heavy to raise. Into an arm wasted of colour a glass fang is fixed, 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 – isolation of woman and poet. Word choice of “white” – connotations of innocence. Metaphor – does not feel the patient is alive. Suggests frailty of woman. Metaphor to describe the drip. Suggests his horror at being unable to help Word choice – guttural sound – creates a sense of bitterness. The drip is intrusive and ineffective

Word choice – distraught and upset. Imagery – universal figure of Death. Word choice – contrast of “white” and “black” – isolated and different Word choice – distraught and upset. 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 and fruitless fruits. Synaesthesia (one sense, sight, is used to evoke another, in this case, sound) – escaping from his distress. “Swimming” – suggest tears as well as his confusion in the experience. Woman’s p.o.v – shows the growing isolation between them. Oxymoron – shows his frustration and anger at the experience. It has all been a pointless experience.

Tone What feeling are we left with by the end of the poem? Try to identify the tone MacCaig creates at the end – and how he does so.

Revision Questions 1. Look at lines 1-10. Where does this poem take place? Write down an example of something the poet mentions that tells us this. 2. How do you think the speaker feels about being in the hospital? Write down a quote that supports your answer. 3. Look at lines 11-20. Explain in your own words what the speaker thinks about the nurses he describes.

Questions continued 4. Read lines 21-30. Where, according to the poet, is the patient lying? Write down a quote that tells us the condition of the patient. 5. Read lines 31-38. What two objects will be left behind? 6. What examples of poetic techniques can you see being used in the poem? Write down any you notice. 7. The theme of a poem is the central message or idea. What do you think the poet’s theme for this poem is?

Answers 1. Look at lines 1-10. Where does this poem take place? Write down an example of something the poet mentions that tells us this. A hospital, “what seems a corpse is trundled” 2. How do you think the speaker feels about being in the hospital? Write down a quote that supports your answer. He feels uncomfortable/nervous “I will not feel” 3. Look at lines 11-20. Explain in your own words what the speaker thinks about the nurses he describes. The narrator is impressed by the seemingly effortless way that the nurses can carry out tasks despite being surrounded by death/grief

Answers 4. Read lines 21-30. Where, according to the poet, is the patient lying? Write down a quote that tells us the condition of the patient. “white cave of forgetfulness” /in hospital ward 7 “withered hand”, “trembles”, “arm wasted of colour”, “eyelids too heavy to raise”. 5. Read lines 31-38. What two objects will be left behind? “books that will not be read”(1)/”fruitless fruit”(1)

Answers 6. What examples of poetic techniques can you see being used in the poem? Write down any you notice. Repetition, Metaphor, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia… 7. The theme of a poem is the central message or idea. What do you think the poet’s theme for this poem is?