“Visiting Hour” by Norman MacCaig

Stanza One The poem is about a visit to a dying relative in hospital. For most of the poem, MacCaig creates a mood of despair, relating to the impending death. He evokes several of our senses, beginning with the smells of the hospital, “The hospital smell/combs my nostrils/as they go bobbing along,” this example of synecdoche (describing one part of him - his nose), as bouncing up and down along the corridors could at first seem humorous. However, there is a sense that there is no escaping the clinical smells as they “comb” or bristle in his nose. Any idea of this being a jolly outing is soon dismissed with the contrast shown by the opening line of verse two, “What seems a corpse….” We are sharply reminded that this is a place of death and dying.

Stanza Two MacCaig uses enjambment to emphasise the end and beginning of his lines, “…..a corpse/is trundled…” and “….vanishes/heavenward.” The poet’s use of the word “corpse” at the end of the line draws attention to the idea of death. There is a touch of humour with the mysterious word “vanishes” at the end of the line, while “heavenward” is set on its own to symbolise that not only is a body being removed upwards in the hospital lift, but this is the start of this unfortunate person’s journey beyond life.

Stanza Three Repetition – The poet repeats the words, “I will not feel” to himself, like a chant. We begin to realise how difficult it is for him in this situation of being about to lose a loved one, to keep control of his emotions. He acknowledges that it will not always be possible to do so, “until I have to.”

Stanza Four The word order describing the nurses’ movement is unusual, “here and up and down and there”. The usual phrasing would be “here and there and, up and down”. By mixing up the words in this way, it suggests the busy nature of the nurses’ jobs and how they are darting about everywhere in every direction. The contrast of “their slender waists” and “carrying their burden of so much pain” shows how difficult he thinks it is for the nurses to complete their duties and remain so in control.

Stanza Four Repetition – “…so much pain, so/many deaths, their eyes/still clear after/so many farewells”. By emphasising the amount of suffering and loss that the nurses have to experience, MacCaig shows his wonder and admiration for them. He finds it hard to reconcile how they can still maintain their emotional detachment, “their eyes/still clear…” after witnessing so much death and suffering. The idea links back to verse three – while the nurses are calm and professional, he doubts whether he will be able to control his own emotions.

Stanza Five - Structure The stanza begins with a short, minor sentence, “Ward 7”. The poet uses the numeral “7” rather than the word. It is like the sign that would appear outside the ward in the hospital – we know that he has arrived at his destination. The sense of movement in the previous verses has come to a stop.

Stanza Five - Imagery There are several effective uses of imagery in this verse, “She lies,/in a white cave of forgetfulness.” The bed, screened off by a white curtain, looks like a cave surrounding her. It is a “cave of forgetfulness” because she is barely conscious. It is an appropriate metaphor because just as a cave surrounds you and cuts you off from the outside world, so she is cut off from the rest of the ward. They cannot communicate with each other in any meaningful way.

Stanza Five - Imagery “A withered hand/ trembles on its stalk.” The image of a rotten flower, barely clinging on at the end of its stem is used to describe the feeble movements of the patient’s arm. The metaphor links again to the theme of decay and dying. “…a glass fang is fixed,/not guzzling but giving.” The metaphor of “fang” suggests that the drip she is attached to is in some way preying on her, almost like a vampire sucking the life from her, when in fact it is there to sustain and help her. The suggestion is that, at this stage, medical intervention is almost pointless. Nothing will save her.

Stanza Five - Structure “And between her and me/distance shrinks till there is none left/but the distance of pain that neither she nor I/can cross”. The repetition of “distance” stresses how far apart they are in their situations. While he is physically in close proximity to her, he cannot experience her suffering with her, as shown by the juxtaposition of “distance shrinks” and “distance of pain”. The enjambment at the end of the line which sets the words “can cross” on their own, shows that there is the void of life and death between them. He cannot follow her and she is unable to come back from the brink of death.

Stanza Six The juxtaposition of, “this/black figure in her white cave,” again shows how out of place he is in the situation she faces. She is surrounded by impending death, separated from the world in, “her white cave” (refer to previous explanation of metaphor), while he must remain in the world of the living. “…the round swimming waves of a bell”, as the bell rings for the end of visiting time he is surrounded by the sound, which seems to pulsate through the ward. There is a pun on the idea of “swimming waves” as the “waves” of sound fill the ward, he likens this to the idea of water that has to be dived through, adding to his confusion and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Stanza Six Oxymoron – “books that will not be read,” there is a contradiction in his gesture of leaving books at her bedside. She will never be able to read them and he knows this, he just wants to feel that he is doing something for her. Paradox – similarly, “fruitless fruits” again suggests that the fruit he leaves will actually serve no purpose. It will not be eaten but will wither away, echoing the imagery of decay that he earlier used to describe her “withered hand”. Both these items, the books and the fruit, have been rendered pointless and void by the fact of her dying. So MacCaig ends the poem with a tone of finality and the emptiness of death. His view of death is similar to the nihilism shown in “Memorial” and “Sounds of the Day”.