Visiting Hour Quotes

• "The hospital smell combs my nostrils as they go bobbing along green and yellow corridors."


  The speaker begins with the recognisingly strong, unique hospital smell.

  
  

  The personification 'combs my nostrils' suggests the smell is active and almost tactile. The image is synecdochic, as the word 'nostrils' in representing himself there.

  
  

  He develops the image by stating that 'they go bobbing along', as though his nostrils are dissociated from himself, again emphasising the smell, though the word 'bobbing' is almost whimsical.

  
  

  The adjectives 'green and yellow' are symbolic, not only of illness, but also of his own upset emotions.
• "I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have to."


  Enjambment - causes the repetition of the word 'feel' to be in a new line, emphasising that he doesn't want to face his emotions. He is whispering to himself, for reassurance.

  
  

  Similarly, the use of enjambment splits 'until' from 'I have to' - thereby drawing even more attention to denying his emotions at this stage.
• "lightly, swiftly"


  The two adverbs - 'light, swiftly' - suggest the nurses' casual, almost carefree (perhaps almost delicate) appearance - intensifying the reader's inadequacy and anxiety
• "slender waists miraculously carrying their burden."


  Word Choice - The word 'miraculously' suggests his amazement and wonder at their ability to carry such burdens, thereby contributing to his feelings of confusion and inadequacy that such 'slender' nurses can be so strong - in contrast to the speaker, whose emotional burden by implication is great.
• "so much pain, so many deaths"


  Repetition, Anaphora - expands on what he sees as the nurses' burden through the repetition of the 'so much' as well as 'so many' which draws attention to all that they deal with.
• "Their eyes still clear after so many farewells."


  Contrast - their clear eyes contrast the speaker's confusion and anxiety.
• "Ward 7. She lies in a white cave of forgetfulness"


  Minor sentence - of 'Ward 7' - abruptly announces the speaker's arrival at his destination (reflecting his friend's abrupt death) where his friend lies 'in a white cave of forgetfulness' - a metaphor where 'white' suggests the sheets and surroundings of the bed and 'cave' conveys her isolation from everyday existence. She is so ill she forgets everything.
• "withered hand trembles on its stalk"


  Metaphor - 'withered' conveys the idea of something living that is now dying, dried out, and shrivelled up. This is extended by the word 'stalk', which suggests that her wrist is frail and too weak to support her hand.
• "glass fang is fixed", "not guzzling but giving"


  Alliteration - of the vampiric image: the repetition of the guttural 'g' sound, along with the fricative 'f' sound, both create an unpleasant, harsh sound that captures the speaker's feeling of being upset by what he sees.
• "leaving behind only books that will not be read and fruitless fruits."


  Oxymoron - 'fruitless fruits' - highlighted by the alliteration of the fricative 'f' sound, and by being in the concluding line. Fruit is a typical gift given to hospital patients, but because she won't survive to eat them, they will rot a decay - this is symbolic of her death to come, with the image further suggesting that his visit has been 'fruitless'.