Visiting Hourby

Norman MacCaig

Poem Summary

• The poem is about a visit MacCaig makes to an ill relative in hospital.

• The opening stanzas (1-4) describe the

poet’s journey through the hospital.

• He then reaches ‘Ward 7’ where he finds the frail woman he has come to see.

• The poem allows us an insight into the narrator’s feelings and we also gain an understanding of how ill the patient is.

Stanza One

(synaesthesia)

The hospital smellCombs my nostrilsAs they go bobbing alongGreen and yellow corridors

(synecdoche)

• How does the poet create a clear sense of setting in the first stanza?

• Why has he chosen to describe the smell?

• What is the effect of the colour choice MacCaig has used for the corridors?

SynaesthesiaConfusion of the senses.

When one senseexperiences something itelicits a response in another sense.

For example - when someone hears certain sounds they might see colour.

SynecdocheUsing a part to refer to

the whole.

For example – he got himself some new wheels

We know this means a car But it only refers to thewheels so it is

SYNECDOCHE

Stanza Two

What seems a corpse Is trundled into a lift and vanishesHeavenwards

Enjambment

• What mood is created in this stanza?

• Explain and pick out words that you think convey this mood.

• Discuss the effect of the enjambment.

Free Verse

The poem does not have a set rhyme scheme or verse structure.

• Why do you think MacCaig decided to adopt free verse in this poem?

It is also written in first person.

• Why is this an effective stance?

Stanza Three

I will not feel, I will notFeel, until I have to.

After the previous stanzaswhich describe the setting,this verse allows us tounderstand the speaker’sfeelings.

• Looking at the structure of this verse, comment on how tension is created.

• What is the effect of the final line?

Stanza Four

(Structure)

Nurses walk lightly, swiftlyhere and up and down and theretheir slender waists miraculouslycarrying their burden,of so much pain, so many deaths, their eyes still clear afterso many farewells (repetition)

In this stanza the poet creates a feeling of activity and purpose.

• What does he feel about the nurses?• In what way do they

provide a contrast?

JourneyThese first four versesmove through the corridors of the hospitalas the speaker headstowards his destination.

• How has this sense of movement been achieved?

Ward 7.Caesura – a pause in a line of poetry.

•What is the effect of the (complete) first line of this stanza?

This is a turning point in the poem. • Explain.

Stanza Five

‘White cave of forgetfulness’

‘A withered hand/trembles on its stalk’

‘glass fang’

‘distance shrinks’

‘the distance of pain which neither she nor I/can cross.’

Stanza Six• What do you notice

about the viewpoint?

The poet is described as the ‘black figure’.

• What is significant about this?

• Explain why you think he ‘clumsily rises’?

Oxymoron – a phrase containing contradictory terms

‘almost finished’, ‘dress trousers’, ‘pretty ugly’

• Comment on the importance of the oxymoron in the final line of the poem.

• How has the speaker’s stance changed from the start of the poem?

• What feeling is the reader left with at the end of the poem?