1. VISITING HOUR Annotation
Poetry of norman maccaig
VISITING HOUR Annotation

2. Poet’s Main Idea
This poem describes a hospital visit that MacCaig makes to a seriously ill female friend or relative.
He reveals the fear and anxiety that haunts him at the start of the visit
He also explores the pain and suffering of the woman he is visiting and shows that they are distanced due to the pain that she is in.
At the end of the poem there is a hopeless or despairing tone as he knows he can’t help her in the way he would like.

3. Reflective Nature of the Poem
In the interview ‘A Metaphorical Way of Seeing Things’, MacCaig maintained that poetry is a ‘psychological Optrex, it clears your eyes and you see things’.
MacCaig reflects throughout the poem on the ways that people try to distract themselves from death and illness and how this is futile.

4. Theme
Reflection on death and how we try to escape it by distracting ourselves but ultimately we have to face the reality of it. Death is inevitable
He also focusses on the suffering of the woman patient and how that isolates her from those she loves

5. Structure Structure mimics his journey through the hospital
Begins with him trying to distract himself from the truth of the visit and then reflecting on the illness once he is confronted by it.

6. Stanza One The hospital smell combs my nostrils
as they go bobbing along
green and yellow corridors.
Think about:
What happens in this stanza?
Why do you think the poet concentrates on the smell?
What is suggested by the description of the hospital?

7. as they go bobbing along green and yellow corridors.
Stanza One
A universal smell – something everybody will recognise
Establishes setting/know visiting someone ill
Metaphor – emphasises strong smell and discomfort
Synecdoche - All other senses are blocked
The hospital smell
combs my nostrils
as they go bobbing along
green and yellow corridors.
Creates humorous picture – he is trying to distract himself from visit
Bobbing also has connotations of lost/unsure/cast adrift
Helps reader picture hospital
Word Choice has connotations of sickness/illness
Can’t escape the fact that he is in hospital

8. Stanza Two What seems a corpse is trundled into a lift and vanishes
heavenward. .
Think about:
What happens in this stanza?
What words or phrases could be shocking to the reader?
What is the effect of this image?

9. is trundled into a lift and vanishes heavenward.
Stanza Two
Unsure of what he sees/shows his distress
Brutal description of body – shows finality of death/
Death is in his thoughts
What seems a corpse
is trundled into a lift and vanishes
heavenward.
Disappears and doesn’t come back – as when someone dies
Word is emphasised. Shows the inevitability of death
Word Choice
Slow moving/moving something heavy
Enjambment is used to emphasise three words. An attempt at humour but also shows his thoughts are focussed on death

10. Stanza Three I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have to.
Think about:
What is the poet wanting to do in this stanza?
What emotion is the poet feeling?

11. I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have to.
Stanza Three
Repetition of I – shows his determination to not feel
Repetition – makes statement feel like a mantra or chant – he is determined to put off his feelings about what is happening
I will not feel, I will not
feel, until
I have to.
Is on a separate line (highlighted by enjambment) – reveals that he is aware that he will have to address his feelings – can’t escape what is happening

12. Stanza Four Think about: What is happening in this stanza?
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.
Think about:
What is happening in this stanza?
How does the poet describe the nurses?
What is the poet’s feeling towards the nurses?

13. Nurses walk lightly, swiftly, here and up and down and there,
Stanza Four
Word Choice
Move elegantly and with purpose
Syntax – reveals the fact that the nurses move quickly and are everywhere.
The repeated use of “and” reinforces this
Nurses walk lightly, swiftly,
here and up and down and there,
their slender waists miraculously
carrying their burden
Shows awe at what they do – they are like angels coping with their jobs
Poet feels envy because he can not do the same
Shows amazement that nurses can cope with so much
Contrast to slender
Reveals weight of what they do/something to endure

14. of so much pain, so many deaths, their eyes still clear after
Stanza Four
Lists the what they have to cope with – repetition highlights the amount they deal with – in contrast to MaCaig who can’t deal with one ill person
Nurses don’t show any emotion despite the pain and suffering that they see/experience
of so much pain, so
many deaths, their eyes
still clear after
so many farewells.
Euphemism for death – showing that he can’t escape these thoughts of death and dying

15. Stanza Five Think about: What is happening in this stanza?
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.
Think about:
What is happening in this stanza?
How does the poet describe the woman?
What emotion do you think the poet is feeling?

16. in a white cave of forgetfulness. A withered hand
Stanza Five
Non-sentence. Caesura.
Turning Point
He (and the reader) shocked by ward
He has to face his feelings
Metaphor
Bed/illness has isolated her and made her forget.
Contrast to colours of before – highlights her isolation
Ward 7. She lies
in a white cave of forgetfulness.
A withered hand
trembles on its stalk.
Word Choice
Decay/dry
/shrivelled up/losing life
Metaphor of flower – usually romantic but now emphasises the illness of the woman
She is weak due to illness
Impersonal pronoun – body as empty shell

17. behind eyelids too heavy to raise. Into an arm wasted
Stanza Five
Emphasises illness/medication she is taking – she is unable to focus on the visit
Eyes move
behind eyelids too heavy
to raise. Into an arm wasted
of colour a glass fang is fixed,
not guzzling but giving.
Word Choice – description of her body due to illness
Shocking imagery – connotations of a vampire. Highlights distress of poet seeing the woman in this way.
Alliteration of “f” emphasises that it is fixed in place
Guzzling emphasises the negative impression of the needle
Harsh “G” sound – reveals his feelings – pointless and intrusive – even as it helps her.

18. distance shrinks till there is none left
Stanza Five
Walking to the hospital bed – wanting to be close to her
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 – sense of futility – physical and emotional pain is a barrier to her connecting with people

19. Stanza Six Think about: What is happening in this stanza?
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.
Think about:
What is happening in this stanza?
What point of view is this stanza written in?
What is the final mood or emotion?

20. She smiles a little at this black figure in her white cave
Stanza Six
His visit has brought her some comfort .
It is not clear if she recognises him (black figure)
Repetition of cave imagery reinforces isolation
Contrast between black and white highlights their differences
Black – connotations of death, shows how ill she is/MacCaig is worried that she might die.
She smiles a little at this
black figure in her white cave
who clumsily rises
in the round swimming waves of a bell
Word Choice
He is overcome by the experiences
Synaesthesia
Less obtrusive than other senses – gentler sound
Time going slower as he prepares to leave?

21. and dizzily goes off, growing fainter,
Stanza Six
Vision blurs due to illness
Also reinforces image if poet being clumsy due to distress he feels
and dizzily goes off, growing fainter,
not smaller, leaving behind only
books that will not be read
and fruitless fruits.
Bitter despair and hopelessness
Use of enjambment to focus on final image
Oxymoron “fruitless fruits.”
Inability to help and so brings gifts that are useless
He is helpless in the face of illness and death

22. An Overview of the Stanzas
Stanza One – MacCaig describes the smell of the hospitals – first hint at illness
Stanza Two – Tries to distract himself but reality of what he is doing influences what he sees
Stanza Three – Desperately tries to avoid any emotion
Stanza Four – Admires the nurses because they do what he can’t
Stanza Five – Reality hits (turning point of the poem. Shows the pain and suffering of the woman
Stanza Six – End of a hopeless and pessimistic tone. He cannot help the woman

23. Revision Tasks
To help you remember the key points of the poem you should:
Write a summary of the poem showing how the poet moves from denying to facing his feelings
Identify a key quote for each of the following points:
A way in which the poet tries to distract himself
His admiration of the nurses
His shock and horror at seeing the woman
The hopelessness and despair he feels.
Write down and analyse any images used