visiting hour
"Nurses walk lightly, swiftly here and there"
Character
In the fourth stanza the writer uses word choice, "lightly" and "swiftly", this is to show that the nurses move elegantly and with purpose. The writer also uses syntax "here and up and down and there" to reveal the fact that the nurses move quickly and are everywhere. The repeated use of "and" reinforces this
"miraculously carrying their burden"
Contrast
Character
Imagery
The speaker describes the nurses burden: a burden is a weight and their ability to carry this emotional baggage on such light frames is astonishing for the speaker, who struggles to prevent his feelings from coming to the surface
"into an arm wasted of colour a glass fang is fixed"
Memory
"wasted" this is word choice its a description of her body due to illness. "glass fang is fixed" shocking imagery, has connotations of a a vampire. It highlights the distress of the poet seeing her this way. Alliteration of "f" emphasises that it is fixed in place.
"back figure in her white cave"
Memory
Sympathy/isolation
Loss
Imagery
in the final stanza, the visit ends and the speaker describes his departure through the eyes of the patient. Contrast becomes an important feature in this stanza. the distance between the 2 figures (one alive, one near death) is highlighter in the description of the black figure in her "white cave". These contrasting colours show the different situations of the speaker and the patient. The visitor, black, is bold and stands out against the white surroundings. The patient on the other hand looks weak and insubstantial
"A withered hand trembles on its stalk"
Memory
Sympathy/Isolation
Imagery
The patients hand seems fragile, McCaig uses word choice to compare her body to a dying flowing "withered", which convays how brittle and frail she is. There is also hope that flowers die and go to seed, so too there is a chance for regrowth and new life, again revealing the speakers desire to believe in some kind of after life. This qoute dehumanises the woman suggesting her body is merely an empty shell and she is no longer truely alive. This idea of emptyness links back to cave imagery.
"eyes still clear after so many farewells"
Contrast
"eyes still clear" suggests nurses dont show any emotion despite the pain and suffering they see/experience. The repetition in stanza 4 of "so" when the poem reads "so much" "so many" highlights the amount they have to deal and cope with, in contrast to McCaig who cant deal with one ill person.
"trundled into a lift and vamishes heavanward"
Sympathy/Isolation
Loss
By the second stanza the issue of mortality is evidant as the visitor describes the progress of a dead body into a lift. In the speakers mind, the rising of the lift becomes symbolic of the rise to heaven. MacCaig uses a metaphor as the speaker describes how vanishes to heavenward. The comparison of tbe lifts journey with a journey of a soul to heaven serves as a reminder of the inevitability of death.
"slender waists"
Contrast
Character
MacCaigs word choice reveals the efficiency with which they go about their jobs. The adverbs lightly and swiftly suggests an easy, almost carefree quality to their movements. "they move here and up and down and there" The word order suggests they are constantly on the move and the repetition of the word "and" underlines this. The adjective "slender" used to describe their "waists", helps us to understand why the speaker is so suprised by their ability to cope with their difficult jons as they seem so delicate.