Aunt Julia – Norman MacCaig

Recap

So far we have talked about imagery (metaphors, personification, and any other striking images)

Word choice (darkness vs. blackness)

Some structure – the poem is split into 5 stanzas, and we have summarized each

Form and Structure cont. The poem is divided into five stanzas which each deal with a specific focus:

Stanza 1 – a child’s memory of his aunt / main recollection is her language – Gaelic – which he could not understand.

Stanza 2 – describes his aunt and how she seemed strange to him, for example, barefoot or wearing men’s boots / his descriptions give insights into her way of life.

Stanza 3 – he recalls the strange experience of sleeping in a box bed.

Stanza 4 – vivid images capture aspects of her life e.g. carrying buckets of water as there is no running water.

Stanza 5 – by the time he learned some Gaelic, it was too late to communicate with his Aunt: she had died.

Today

We will discuss tone, and go into more detail of the structure of “Aunt Julia”.

Definitions:

Tone: The poet or speaker’s attitude towards the subject

Enjambment: The continuation of a line of poetry without a break. The line of poetry goes over the end of a line with no punctuation.

Form and Structure

This is an autobiographical poem so it makes sense that the poet employs a first person narrative stance.

Like all MacCaig poetry, part of its success lies in his skill of using accessible language in an incredibly skilful and effective way.

Writing in free verse helps to create a conversational style and tone, while the use of enjambment and repetition allow him to emphasise key aspects of the poem.

Group Task

In your groups, go through the stanza assigned to you and look for any repetition, enjambment, or other features of structure that are interesting. Also try to discern MacCaig’s tone.

Underline the examples you findThink about why MacCaig has structured the poem in this way

Aunt Julia spoke GaelicVery loud and very fast.I could not answer her – I could not understand her.

She was different, as Gaelic is not a

common language.She appears

to be very extrovert

and not shy.

Structure: Repetition

emphasises MacCaig’s

helplessness.

Structure: This poem is in free verse which corresponds with aunt Julia’s eccentricity and unpredictability.

Stanza 1

Stanza 1

The repetition of I could not reinforces the idea of the barrier in communication.

However, despite this inability to understand or be understood, the tone is affectionate and emphasises that, even without a common language, strong bonds can be created.

Already in this vivid description we have the impression of Julia as a dynamic, vigorous and forceful character.

She wore men’s boots

When she wore any.

- I can see her strong foot,

Stained with peat,

Paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel

While her right hand drew yarn

Marvellously out of the air.

She is burly, and shows a

sense of power and strength.

He is in awe of her and

admires her.

Aunt Julia is quirky and

unconventional

Stanza 2

Peat: an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation which forms in wetlands such as bogs

Treadle: rocking lever operated by the foot to drive a spinning wheel

Yarn: continuous twisted strand fibre produced on a spinning

wheel.

Stanza 2

Structure: The long line paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel serves to accentuate the lengthiness of the spinning process and creates a sense of movement and activity which MacCaig also associates with his aunt.

In almost every description of her in the poem she is either in motion or speaking, emphasising the shocking silent finality of her death in the final stanza.

Stanza 2

Language: The long vowels in her hand drew yarn elongates the line and helps to convey the impression of the wool being stretched out and made taut.

Language: The use of the present tense throughout this stanza creates a sense of immediacy and shows how vividly and readily he can still access these memories.

Hers was the only house

Where I’ve lain at night

In the absolute darkness

Of a box bed, listening to

Crickets being friendly.

Despite the darkness and primitive

accommodation, he feels secure and safe

The ‘darkness’

and friendly crickets contrast

No punctuation – shows

excitement.

Stanza 3

Box bed: bed built into a recess in a traditional Highland

cottage, separated from the main room by a curtain or

wooden panel.

Stanza 3

In stanza three we see clearly that the language barrier was surmounted by an bond between the speaker and his aunt.

The young boy feels safe and secure in Aunt Julia’s home..

Again the affection he feels for her is evident in the decision to open this stanza with the pronoun Hers, emphasising her significance to him.

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 tea pot.

He compare to a series of metaphors – to do with nature

and things of a home (clothing

and money)

Aunt Julia combines the strength of nature and the security of a domestic home.

It is a hard life, she did not have much money but worked very hard.

Stanza 4

Threepennybit: old eight-sided pre-decimal coin (worth around 1p)

Stanza 4 In stanza four, MacCaig employs personification and

metaphor to compare his aunt both with the elements he associates with this landscape, the wind and water

She appears to him to be vivid, larger than life, and so connected with the landscape itself she becomes part of it.

Again the impression conveyed is of a woman in constant motion: the flouncing water gives a description of the deliberate, vigorous way she moved.

Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic

Very loud and very fast.

By the time I had learned

A little, she lay

Silenced in the absolute black

Of a sandy grave

At Luskentyre.

It is too late by the time he had learnt his aunties

language. He cannot communicate with her.

Death = Darkness

Shorter lines with more pauses for

thought. Change of atmosphere –

disappointment and sadness.

Stanza 5

Luskentyre – tiny village with spectacular sandy beach on the island

of Harris.

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.

Her words are incomprehensible. But she

still lives through nature, as he still hears her through

the ‘seagull’s voice’.

Both are getting angry. Aunt Julia is angry because

he could not answer her questions. But he is

frustrated because he could not get to know her better.

Stanza 5

Lazybeds: traditional way of growing crops in small patches of

soil using ridges of soil.

Stanza 5 Structure: The final stanza opens by repeating the opening lines of the poem: Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic/very loud and very fast. 

However a darker tone enters the poem at this point. By the time MacCaig had learned a little Gaelic, his aunt was dead, lying silenced in her grave.

Structure: The contrast between the loud, talkative vibrant Aunt Julia in life and the utter, absolute quiet of death is emphasised using enjambment to position silenced at the opening of line five.

The tone seems almost accusatory, as if blaming death for suffocating and stopping her voice.

Stanza 5 This sinister, unsettling tone continues in describing the absolute black of her grave.

Unlike the comforting security of the absolute darkness of the box bed in the third stanza, the subtle shift from darkness to black conveys the frighteningly bleak void of death.

However, he can still vividly imagine her calling to him in welcome. Her voice is loud, carrying across a hundred yards and shrill like a seagull’s piercing cry.

Again, the metaphor used connects her to the natural world which played such a huge part in her life. The poem ends with the poet imagining her: getting angry, getting angry, with so many questions, unanswered.

Stanza 5

Structure: The repetition of the word angry in these final three lines suggests MacCaig is warning us to hold onto and cherish the culture and heritage of the island way of life. He is afraid if we allow it to die, like Aunt Julia, then it too will be lost forever.

Overall Tone of Regret Different lines in different stanzas may have different tones, but this poem has one overall tone: regret

The reason for this regret is that only after Julia's death did the poet learn enough Gaelic to be able to communicate with her.

Hence all the questions that he would have asked to her must now remain unanswered, just as her questions to him as a child had been.

Written Tasks

Try your best to work through the questions about, ‘Aunt Julia’. Make your answers and detailed and as mature as possible. Use your notes.

Imagine that you are the young narrator laying in your box bed listening to the friendly crickets, writing a diary entry about your visit to see Aunt Julia.