visiting hour

Question 1

what are the central themes of the poem?

Answer 1

• isolation
• loss

Question 2

“hospital smell”

Answer 2

characteristic smell that almost everyone can idenitfy with

Question 3

“combs my nostrils”

Answer 3

• seems dreadfuly uncomfortable to comb ones nortrils, this shows us how uneasy he is feeling in hospital environment
• feeling of invasion

Question 4

“as they go bobbing along”

Answer 4

• use of synedoche as poet describes only his nose moving along the hospital
• shows how unbearably overwhelming the hospital smell is - he might as well only be a nose at this point as it is all he can concentrate on
• light hearted tone

Question 5

“green and yellow”

Answer 5

• emphasises a feelings of discomfort and unease
• connotates illness, pus, disgust

Question 6

“what seems a corpse”

Answer 6

• not sure if the person is dead but he is assuming the worse
• implies that death was already on his mind

Question 7

“vanishes heavenward”

Answer 7

the enjambment of “vanishes” and “heavenward” reminds us that people are dying/moving on and we wont be able to reach them

Question 8

“i will not… i will not”

Answer 8

• repetition creates an anxious tone
• anxious tone: fear of what he might find when he gets to his loved one

Question 9

“lightly, swiftly”

Answer 9

shows how in control the nurses are and how he is not

Question 10

“miraculously”

Answer 10

he is in awe of the nurses

Question 11

“carrying the burden”

Answer 11

imagery of a burden is used to describe the weight of responsibility the nurses have to carry everyday in their job

Question 12

“ward 7”

Answer 12

short, blunt, minor sentence that signifies he is at the moment he has been trying to put off

Question 13

“SHE lies”

Answer 13

• impersonal
• trying to put distance between himself and his loved one because he cant bear what is happening to her

Question 14

“white cave of forgetfullness”

Answer 14

• “white cave” implies cubical with a white sheet around it which encloses his loved one
• “forgetfullness” implies confusion due to being on medication for pain or just from her illness

Question 15

“a withered hand trembles on its stalk”

Answer 15

• “withered” emphasises her poor physical condition
• “trembles” distraught mental state or due to illness/weakness
• “stalk” thin wrist
  overall metaphor for her hand being a decaying flower hanging off of a thin stalk

Question 16

“too heavy”

Answer 16

• too drugged or to ill to open/lift her eyes
• emphasises poor physical condition

Question 17

“glass fang is fixed”

Answer 17

• his initial reaction is to see the fang as an attack
• “fixed” in his eyes she is being attacked - much like a vampire, by this fang as she lies vulnerably with it fixed into her arm

Question 18

“not guzzling but giving”

Answer 18

• realises he mightve been overreacting
• its not taking her blood like a vampire would, its giving her nutrients/things she needs to survive

Question 19

“distance…dictance”

Answer 19

• repetition of distance highlights the theme of isloation
• he is isolated from her, she is isolated from him

Question 20

“black figure in her white cave”

Answer 20

• contrast of colours showing how they are isolated/distanced/alienated from eachother

Question 21

“round swimming waves of a bell”

Answer 21

• use of sibilance adds to the overall confusion
• synaesthesia adds to confusion and his inability to cope with the situation

Question 22

“only books that will not be read and fruitless fruits”

Answer 22

• she cannot read nor eat which emphasises their pointlessness
• sums up his feelings about the visit, he feels it was futile
• he cannot help her or take away the pain, he feels inferior to the nurses who deal so well with these situations