Aunt Julia quotes

Question 1

Stanza one

Answer 1

Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
very loud and very fast.
I could not answer her —
I could not understand her.

Question 2

Stanza two, boots

Answer 2

She wore men’s boots
when she wore any.
— I can see her strong foot,
stained with peat,

Question 3

Stanza two, spinning-wheel

Answer 3

paddling with the treadle of the spinningwheel
while her right hand drew yarn
marvellously out of the air.

Question 4

Stanza three, box-bed, crickets

Answer 4

Hers was the only house
where I’ve lain at night
in the absolute darkness
of a box bed, listening to
crickets being friendly.

Question 5

Stanza four, buckets

Answer 5

She was buckets
and water flouncing into them.

Question 6

Stanza four, winds

Answer 6

She was winds pouring wetly
round house-ends.

Question 7

Stanza four, eggs

Answer 7

She was brown eggs, black skirts
and a keeper of threepennybits
in a teapot.

Question 8

Stanza five, grave

Answer 8

Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
very loud and very fast.
By the time I had learned
a little, she lay
silenced in the absolute black
of a sandy grave
at Luskentyre. But I hear her still, welcoming me

Question 9

Stanza five, seagull’s voice

Answer 9

at Luskentyre. But I hear her still, welcoming me
with a seagull’s voice
across a hundred yards
of peatscrapes and lazybeds

Question 10

Stanza five, getting angry

Answer 10

and getting angry, getting angry
with so many questions
unanswered.