Flashcards
Visiting Hour
Cards in this deck (22)
- 1Visiting HourA visit to a dying friend in the hospital. In the poem, the speaker is determined to maintain his composure to prevent his friend worrying and being afraid. In the end it is unsuccessful and he is forced to face the reality of his own and his friend's morality.
- 2Form and StructureThe poem is a stream of consciousness from a first person stance which allows us to experience the emotions of the speaker as he is feeling them. It is a free verse form and present tense.
- 3Stanza OneThe poem begins with a description of the speaker's progress through the corridors of the hospital. MacCaig chooses to mention unusual details ( movements of the nose ) and the colours of the walls
- 4"The hospital smell/combs my nostrils."This is evocative, bringing to mind the pervasive smells with which we associate hospitals.
- 5"As they go bobbing along"The word choice bobbing has pleasant connotations, as though he is trying to trick himself into thinking the experience won’t be as bad as he anticipates.
- 6"Green" and "Yellow"The connotations of these colours suggest sickness which emphasis's that visiting a hospital is always a difficult experience.
- 7Stanza Two and ThreeNow the issue of morality is evident as the visitors describes the progress of a dead body into a lift.
- 8"Vanishes/heavenward."*In the speaker's mind, the rising lift is symbolic of the journey to heaven. To the speaker this is a reminder of the inevitability of death.
- 9"I will not feel"*In stanza three the speaker focuses on the effect this situation is having on him. The repetition is testament to the speakers determination to prevent his emotions from overpowering him.
- 10"feel"The use of enjambment specifically emphasises the word and clearly conveys how desperately the speaker would like to remain numb.
- 11Stanza FourThe focus of the poem now moves onto the nurses in the hospital. MacCaig's word choice reveals the efficiency with which they go about their jobs.
- 12"Lightly... Swiftly" and "slender"Suggests an easy, almost carefree quality to their movements. It also helps us understand that the speaker is surprised they can cope with such a difficult job when they seem so delicate.
- 13"So much pain, so many deaths... so many farewells."This emphasises the strain of their job. Also the word choice helps us understand the speaker's incredulity at the way the nurses are able to function so efficiently when surrounded by so much pain and suffering. Contrasting the persona whom struggles to prevent his emotions from overwhelming him.
- 14Stanza FiveThe use of caesura – a pause that breaks up a line of verse – in the opening of this stanza illustrates the immediate, inescapable simplicity of the situation - "Ward 7."
- 15"White cave of forgetfulness"This reveals the isolation and lack of any sensory awareness in her current state. It also emphasises how distant from the speaker she now is.
- 16"Withered" and "Trembles"By comparing her body to a dying flower he conveys how brittle and frail she has become,as well as hinting at her past vitality. However their is also an implicit hope that just as flowers die and go to seed, so too there is the possibility for regrowth in new life. Suggesting the persona believes in some sort of afterlife.
- 17"Its stalk"The pronoun "its" rather than referring to her arm serves to dehumanise the woman. It suggests that her body is merely an empty shell - that the person she once was has gone.
- 18"glass fang"The comparison of the intravenous drip to a vampire is shocking. It shows how frightening the speaker finds the medical equipment attached to the patient.
- 19Stanza SixIn the final stanza, the visit ends and the speaker describes his departure through the eyes of the patient.
- 20"Black figure in her white cave"Contrast becomes an important feature in this stanza. The distance between the two figures is highlighted in the description of the comparison of the "black figure" and the "white cave"
- 21"The round swimming waves of a bell"In this line the poet uses the technique of synaesthesia where on sense in this case sight, is used to evoke another, the sound of the bell marking the end of visiting hour. Although for the reader the bells have a much deeper connotation - this being the last time he will see the patient.
- 22"fruitless fruits"*Oxymoronic - Just as the persona attaches negative connotations to the patient in the lift and the need in the patient's arm, so he recognises the pointlessness of the gifts left for the patient.
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- Higher School Certificate(HSC ) English (Norman MacCaig ( The death preacher )) Flashcards on Visiting Hour , created by asim99786 on 24/04/2016.
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