2. View Of Scotland\Love Poem Poem By Liz Lochhead Presentation By Aidan O’Dowd

3. Summary “View of Scotland\Love Poem” is set a poem which looks at the themes of tradition and the passage of time. It is set at Hogmanay, where Lochhead looks back on past New Year’s Eves.

4. The poem’s Title Liz Lochhead split the title into two in order to focus on two important themes. Both of which tie into each other “View of Scotland” is a reference to the theme of tradition, as Liz Lochhead explores the idea of tradition and how we view it throughout the poem Liz Lochhead titles the Poem “Love Poem” as it was also a tribute to her husband, who she meets at a New Years party. The split is also a reference to the two segments in Lochhead’s life, a reference to the passage of time.

5. Lochhead’s Mother “Down on her hands and knees at ten at night on Hogmanay” “Jiffywaxing the vinolay” “…and her well pressed good dress” “Nearly half-ten already and her still not shifted!” Lochhead (who seems to be the speaker) creates an image of her mother that is more traditional and somewhat superstitious, as instead of getting herself ready, she franticly scrubs the house, and when she does get dressed she puts on a “good dress”. This is because, even though we are told that they don’t expect any visits, they are both things done traditionally by her mother in order to bring good luck. This helps Lochhead create an image of how tradition was viewed years ago. The reference to the mother still cleaning half an hour later helps emphasise how fast the passage of time is.

6. Tradition and Memory “This is too ordinary to be nostalgia” “a newly opened tin of sockeye salmon”, “slab of black bun”, “petticoat-tails fanned out on bone china” “Last year it was very quiet” Lochhead rejects the idea of nostalgia, as she would rather remember things without romanticising them to have a clear viewpoint on them. However, she then goes on to talk about the food she ate on that day, vividly describing the delicacies positively, showing that she can’t help but feel some sentimentality. “Last year it was very quiet” helps highlight the change in tradition from her mother’s time to now, as back then it was expected that guests would drop in unannounced, and therefore you would prepare for them. Now, that happens less so, but the mother still prepares nonetheless, as it is still traditional for her.

7. Tradition and Time “If we’re to even hope to prosper the midnight must find us how we would like to be, A new view of Scotland with a dangling calendar is propped under last year’s ready to take it’s place” “It’s thirty years since anybody was able to trick me, December thirty-first, into ‘looking into a mirror to see a lassie wi as minny heids as days in the year” A lot of the traditions Lochhead talks about reference the passage of time, some of them being older and stuck in the past, while some of them looking towards the future. The line “ A new view of Scotland” is an example of this, as Lochhead transitions from focusing on “View of Scotland” to “Love poem”, as she is optimistically looking towards the future with her husband.

8. Lochhead & her Husband “…and two already since, familiar strangers at a party, we did not know that we were the happiness we wished each other when the Bells went, did we?” “There is no time like the present for a kiss.” Lochhead emphasises the passage of time with reference to her husband, as within a short timespan of only two years Lochhead met, fell in love and married a complete stranger. The bells that ring at New Years usher in a new year, which mirrors the wedding bells ushering in the next section of Lochhead’s life. The final line of the poem links the two titles of the poem together, referencing both how the passage of time is always moving forward and that we are always in the present, and commenting on Lochhead and her husband’s relationship as she is receiving a “kiss” as a “present”. The poem ends much happier and optimistic than most of her other poems, which usually end in a form of sadness or anger.