Visiting Hour Annotations

Question 1

the hospital smell combs my nostrils

Answer 1

imagery

Personification – smell overpowers his senses
Combs – discomfort as the smell invades his sense

theme

Hospital – shows clear setting connotation of life and death

Question 2

bobbing along

Answer 2

sound Assonance

to emphasise he feels adrift, lost (in the hospital and without his friend/relative)

word choice

Bobbing – shows that he is adrift, unsure of the direction

Question 3

Green and yellow corridors

Answer 3

word choice

Connotations of sickness stressed his discomfort of the surroundings

Question 4

what seems a corpse

Answer 4

metaphor

patient appears dead, poet cannot believe it is still alive

word choice

What – like it is no longer human and cannot tell age/sex
Corpse – continues negative tone suggesting there is little relation to life and the finality of death

Question 5

`trundled

Answer 5

Moves slowly past, not in a hurry

Juxtaposes the word “corpse”

Question 6

vanishes

Answer 6

Will never be seen again/death

Question 7

heavenward

Answer 7

enjambment

word on its own for emphasis
Literal: patient is being moved to the floor above

metaphorical

poet expects patient to die and go to heaven, making light of it

Question 8

i will not feel, i will not feel, until i have to

Answer 8

Repetition

poets thoughts laid bare as if chanting under his breathe to not show emotion as he is clearly upset
Reader feels sympathy for poet

Question 9

lightly, swiftly

Answer 9

Nurses glide purposefully and elegantly

Question 10

here and up and down and there

Answer 10

Unusual syntax (word order) emphasises the number of nurses there are and have the ability of omnipresence (everywhere at once)

Question 11

slender waists miraculously

Answer 11

word choice

Amazed that they can deal with death and suffering with such slight frames
Miraculously – admiration of nurses abilities, links with image of heavenward and omnipresence

Question 12

of so much pain, so many deaths

Answer 12

repetition

stresses amount of times nurses have to deal with unpleasant things, which supports the respect (envy?) poet has for them

Question 13

eyes still clear

Answer 13

Remain strong

Not crying

Question 14

farewells

Answer 14

Euphemism

a word or phrase that makes a serious/ terrible event sound less harsh farewell – death
The purpose of his visit is to say goodbye
Will possibly meet again suggesting his desire to believe in the afterlife at such troubling times

Question 15

ward 7. she lies

Answer 15

Non-sentence and caesura (sentence stopping part way through a line) is abrupt. Jolts the reader in the same way that the poet is affected
Turning point of poem as now MacCaig must face his emotions

Question 16

in a white cave of forgetfulness

Answer 16

metaphor

the curtains and sheets are cave-like conveying her isolation

word choice

Forgetfulness – ambiguous the room shows no sign of previous patients or she is losing her memory or MacCaig wishes to forget the image

Question 17

a withered hand trembles on its stalk

Answer 17

Metaphor

woman’s body is frail and brittle, by comparing it to a dying flower (stalk)

word choice

Withered – deteriorated state
Trembles – emphasises old age of the woman
Its – pronoun dehumanises woman, suggesting MacCaig does not see her as human but her body is merely as empty shell, while she is effectively dead

Question 18

eyes move behind eyelids too heavy to raise

Answer 18

word choice

Emphasises how ill the woman is
Syntax if missed pronoun (her) emphasises that the woman does not seem truly human/alive to the poet

Question 19

wasted

Answer 19

is wasting away

no longer used

Question 20

a glass fang is fixed

Answer 20

Metaphor

suggesting the I.V. canula in arm is like a vampire draining her life-force. The horror of the image shows the poet is shocked and distressed

Alliteration

(“fang… fixed”) emphasises that the I.V. has to remain to support her life but MacCaig is horrified by it

Question 21

guzzling but giving

Answer 21

Horror at “glass fang” image is continued by the word “guzzling”, but reversed by the word “giving”. The alliteration of the guttural “g” sound conveys the harshness of the poet’s feelings towards it – pointless and intrusive

Question 22

Distance shrinks till there is none left
But the distance of pain that neither she nor I
Can cross

Answer 22

Metaphor

too painful to admit she is dying so neither talk about it
Sense of futility/ uselessness
Acknowledging her physical pain and his emotional pain

Question 23

can cross

Answer 23

sound

Alliteration guttural “c” sound emphasises the unpleasant situation

Enjambment

emphasise that it is not possible for MacCaig to show his emotions

Question 24

she smiles a little

Answer 24

Switched perspective – now from her P.O.V. and is comforted by visit from MacCaig. This helps MacCaig to cope

Question 25

black figure in her white cave

Answer 25

Metaphor

MacCaig appears blurred in her sight and refers to the universal image of death (MacCaig leaving, death appearing)
the emphasis on her isolation in the hospital bay now that MacCaig is leaving

Question 26

clumsily

Answer 26

MacCaig is overcome with emotion and dazed by the experience

She views MacCaig as childlike

Question 27

round swimming waves of a bell

Answer 27

The bell rings gently to signify the end of the visit/her life
The sound envelops in a less obtrusive manner than the smell of the hospital in the first stanza

Question 28

growing fainter

Answer 28

Shows the woman’s vision is blurry as she sees him grow fainter as he walks away

Question 29

and fruitless fruits

Answer 29

Enjambment

last line shows the bitter despair at the hopelessness

Oxymoron

emphasises the pointlessness of the prolonged death and his inability to help – bringing fruit has been “fruitless”/pointless