VISITING HOUR

• “a glass fang”


  * Metaphor - intravenous drip compared to a vampire = shocking image.
• “Ward 7.”


  * Caesura - full stop creates halt creating effect of poet arriving at the ward, abruptness of this jolts reader,, we also brace ourselves for the worst.
• “Combs my nostrils”


  *Word Choice - brings to mind pervasive smell associated with hospitals (shows strength of smell)

  * Just as comb brushes through hair, the odur assaults our sense of smell and is overwhelming.
• “green and yellow” 


  * Word Choice - colours have connotations of sickness which further stresses the poets discomfort in these surroundings.

  * Simple colour scheme is a concept of familiar to most hospital visitors.
• “they”


  * Synechdoche - the ‘nostril’ comes to life (represent all of him)- humerous image to contrast the seriousness to be faced.
• “Corpse”


  * Word Choice- very little emotion shown - distances himself from death.
• “trundled”


  * Word Choice - conveys noise of trolley, but also the emotionless way its handled.
• “vanishes”


  * Enjambment - emphasises last word of line. carefully chosen to suggest finality of death.
• “bobbing along”


  * Word Choice - jolly connotations hints at narrators attempted denial of the seriousness of the situation. he is trying to trick himself into thinking the experience won’t be as bad as he anticipates.
• “a lift”


  * Symbolic of rising to heaven (further emohasis of death).
• “I will not feel , I will not feel”

  * Repetition - intensifies control the speaker is trying to impose upon himself, denying his feelings as they are too painful - determined to remain detatched.

  * Enjambment - emphasises determination to achieve the numb feeling speaker wants.
• “I have to“


  * Suggesting his desire to avoid feeling until he is forced to.
• “here and up and down and there”


  * Inverted word order - suggests and emphasises always on the move.

  * Repetition - of ‘and‘ underlines this.
• “Smiles”


  * Word Choice suggests possible recognition or poet / acceptance of the inevitability of death.
• “So much… So many… So many farewells”


  * Repetition - emphasises amount they will endure and shows speakers admiration that they cope so well.

  * Hints to hope of an afterlife
• “round swimming waves of a bell”

  * Synaesthesia - sight evokes sound of bell marking end of visiting hour. Imagery of ‘swimming waves’ could imply he feels he is drowning in his emotions.
• “white cave of forgetfulness“

  * Metaphor - isolation and lack of awareness (she is distant from speaker),, room is compared to cave suggests isolation.

  * Word Choice ‘white’ connotations of innocence, creates sympathy for her.
• “a withered hand trembles on its stalk”


  * Metaphor - woman compared to a flower, suggests her fragility and how close to death she is but hints at post vitality.
• “not guzzling but giving”


  * Word Choice and Alliteration of ‘g’ - draws attention to the fact that the drip is seeking to put life into her not draw it out however pointlessly.
• “black figure in her white cave”


  * Contrast of colours to emphasise seperation - speaker is black, he is like death suggesting his visit to see her marks the end of her life.
• “books that will not be read and fruitless fruits”

  * Oxymoron - reminder of proximity of death ( will not get to enjoy gifts) emphasises hopelessness of her situation.

  * Alliteration - caltures poets despair, frustration and lack of acceptance and his anger at the death of his loved one.