Aunt Julia

• "Aunt Julia"


  - First words in poem

  - Shows her importance
• "Gaelic"


  - Celtic language spoke in the Highlands

  - Hints that she is different from the poet

  - MacCaig speaks English and Aunt Julia only speaks Gaelic
• "Very loud and very fast"

  - Repitition

  - Emphasises her eccentric and extroverted personality

  - Builds on the idea that she has a lot of energy
• "I could not understand her"


  - Literally true as he does not speak or understand Gaelic

  - Metaphorically true because she is eccentric and unlike anyone else he knows
• "I could not"


  - Repetition

  - Emphasises the speaker's helplessness

  - Reinforces the image of the barrier between MacCaig and Julia
• "Wore men's boots/when she wore any"


  - Julia is quirky and unconventional

  - She prefers practicality over beauty

  - Physically demanding work
• "Strong foot"


  - Word choice

  - Admiring tone emphasises her impressive physical strength
• "Stained with peat"


  - Shows her connection to her land and nature

  - Creates a vivid impression of her appearance

  - Implies she doesn't mind getting dirty
• "Paddling"


  - Present tense

  - Memories are vivid

  - Accentuates the lengthiness of the spinning process

  - Creates a sense of movement and activity
• "Treadle of the spinning wheel"


  - Length of line echoes her movement

  - Connects her to her culture

  - Dying out
• "Marvellously"


  - Word choice

  - Like magic

  - Shows his admiration for his aunt

  - Shows she is skilled
• "Only house"


  - Word choice stresses the uniqueness of Aunt Julia and also her location

  - Shows the special bond they have

  - He feels safe and secure with her
• "Absolute darkness"


  - Emphasises Just how dark it is

  - He isn't worried or scared of the darkness in her house
• "Crickets being friendly"


  - Personification reinforces that he is comfortable and happy with his Aunt

  - Highlights happy atmosphere
• "She was buckets"


  - Metaphor creates a picture of an unconventional , larger than life character

  - She is a symbol of the land and the elements
• "Water flouncing"


  - Transferred epithet shows the motion and energy of Aunt Julia

  - Word choice suggests movement , energy but also perhaps a certain gracefulness
• "Wind pouring wetly"


  - Compared to a force of nature

  - Enjambment mimics the movement of the wind

  - Alliteration of ' W ' sounds mimics the sound of the wind
• "She was"


  - Repetition creates positive affirmations of who she was - Past tense of 'was' suggests she is no longer around
• "Keeper of threepennybits"


  - Hard working life

  - Word choice

  - Coin that is no longer used

  - Has links to the past and ways of life that are no longer around
• "Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic / very loud and very fast"


  - Repetition emphasises how loud and energetic she was - Second time Gaelic is mentioned which suggests he is very proud of her Gaelic heritage
• "By the time I had learned / a little"

  - Cause of regret for the poet too late

  - By the time he has leared his Aunt's Language he couldn't communicate with her
• "Lay silenced"


  - Contrasts to the talkative and active life Julia had with the quiet of death

  - Sinister, unsettling tone
• "Absolute black"


  - Links back to ' absolute darkness ' in stanza 3

  - Darkness is symbolic of death

  - Connotations of death/grave

  - Aunt Julia is gone
• "Sandy graves"


  - Shorter lines

  - Final and blunt like death is
• "Welcoming me friendliness"


  - Friendliness is part of her character reinforces bond and love that they have for each other
• "With a seagull's voice"


  - Metaphor linked to nature again

  - Suggest how loud her voice was

  - She was incomprehensible
• "Peatscrapes"


  - Word choice

  - Absence of peat = absence of her

  - Scars in the bog where the peat has been removed
• "Getting angry , getting angry"


  - Repetition

  - Ambiguous ending emphasises the anger and frustration

  - Julia is angry MacCaig can't answer her questions and MacCaig is angry because he has lots of unanswered questions now that she is gone
• "So many questions unanswered"

  - 'Unanswered' is emphasised through enjambment

  - Sense of frustration about lack of communication