1. The Poetry of Norman MacCaig
Higher English
Set Texts
The Poetry of Norman MacCaig
Prelim Revision, 2015

2. There are a variety of elements to MacCaig’s poetry.
Theme of isolation
Theme of loss and grief
Theme of lack of communication
Deeply emotional situations
Human experiences
Personal experience
Nature
Theme of death
Observation of people or places
Contrast
Can you link each of MacCaig’s poems
to one or more of these elements and
themes?

3. ‘Aunt Julia’
‘Sounds of the Day’
‘Memorial’
‘Basking Shark’
‘Visiting Hour’
‘Assisi’

4. MacCaig’s Creation of Mood in his Poetry
Poetry has the power to evoke emotions and feelings in its readers and audience members, if it is read out loud. These emotions and feelings help establish a certain atmosphere or mood.
The writer of the poem creates the mood using a number of elements such as language, setting, tone and theme. To define the mood of a poem, the reader should analyse how these different elements interact and what feeling or atmosphere they evoke.
‘Aunt Julia’ is a poem where a variety of moods are prevalent.
Can you identify the different moods in the poem?

5. I could not answer her – MacCaig’s Creation of Mood in his Poetry
Stanza 1: “Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic
very louds and very fast.
I could not answer her –
I could not understand her.”
Stanza 2: “while her right hand drew yarn
marvellously out of the air”
Stanza 3: “Hers was the only house
where I’ve lain at night
in the absolute darkness
of a box bed, listening to
crickets being friendly.”
Repetition creates a mood of frustration
Word choice creates a mood of awe, wonder,
and fondness of his Aunt.
Contrast is used here to emphasise the mood of happiness and content.

6. MacCaig’s Creation of Mood in his Poetry Stanza 4: “She was buckets and water flouncing into them. She was winds pouring wetly round house ends. She was brown eggs, black skirts and a keeper of threepennybits in a teapot.”
Again, a mood of awe and wonder is created through MacCaig’s use of language:
Imagery (succession of metaphors)
Repetition (she was)
Listing (emphasises the amount of things she was able to do)

7. MacCaig’s Creation of Mood in his Poetry Stanza 6: “Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast By the time I had learned a little, she lay silences in the absolute black of a sandy grave at Luskentyre. But I hear her still, welcoming me with a seagull’s voice across a hundred yards of peatscrapes and lazybeds and getting angry, getting angry with so many questions unanswered.”
Repetition creates a mood of frustration
“by the time I had learned a little
she lay silenced…” “black” “grave”
creates a mood and sense of regret
Word choice creates a nostalgic
mood of fondness for his Aunt.
Repetition is used here again to create a mood
of guilt and frustration that he was never able
to communicate with his Aunt.
“Unanswered questions” highlights the mood of
regret.

8. The Last Question (10 marks)
Look at the hand out of the set text specimen. The paper is broken down as follows:
There will be four questions.
The first three questions will be textual analysis style questions on one of the set texts that will be given to you.
Two 4 mark questions (So, two quotes and two sets of analysis per question)
One 2 mark question (So, one quote and one set of analysis)
Your last question will be worth 10 marks, taken from one or more of MacCaig’s other poems although you should refer to the poem given and discuss how it connects to MacCaig’s other poems (‘one or more’ /‘at least one’)
2 marks for identifying a commonality (theme etc in ref to the question)
2 marks from poem given (quote and analysis)
6 marks for referring to MacCaig’s other poems (“one or more/at least one”)
Could be two quotes from one of MacCaig’s other poems and one quote from a third, or all three from one.

9. Assisi (dwarf and church, poverty and wealth.
The Last Question (10 marks!)
You will be asked about thematic connections in MacCaig’s work:
Usually:
Themes (loss, grief, death,
- Sounds of the Day
Memorial
Visiting Hour
Aunt Julia
Personal Experience (All)
Observation (All except ‘AJ’)
Isolation (All)
People or Places (All)
Nature Imagery
Memorial (bird, floral)
Aunt Julia (outdoors, eggs, winds)
Assisi (extended metaphor – hens)
Sounds of the Day (Outdoors, birds, ocean, winds, river)
Basking Shark (shark, rain on the sea, “slime of everything”)
Contrast
Assisi (dwarf and church, poverty and
wealth.
Memorial (death and floral imagery)
Sounds of the Day (contrasting
sounds to highlight MacCaig’s grief.
Positive vrs negative.)
- Basking Shark (MacCaig comparing himself
to the shark – Is he superior?) “matchbox brain –
room sized monster”.
Aunt Julia (“crickets being friendly” in
contrast to the dark room to emphasise
his comfort at Aunt Julia’s. )