H English Aunt Julia quotes

‘Aunt Julia’ - Title

Familial connection - assumption of love & depth

Themes

* Sense of isolation felt by speaker, who is unable to communicate effectively with this much loved relative
* Despite this barrier, emotions can often transcend language through the obvious, almost spiritual connection and affection between the two
* Julia symbolises elements of a distinct Scottish heritage, language and culture that are at risk of disappearing forever in the modern world
* Isolation, loss, regret, nature & heritage, familial connections

Stanza 1 quotes

* ‘spoke Gaelic’
* ‘very loud and very fast’
* ‘I could not answer her/I could not understand her.’

‘spoke Gaelic’

* Tone
* Past tense. Immediate introduction to tone of nostalgia & sadness
* ‘Gaelic’
* Difficult to learn/understand. Dying language. Language barrier, conflicted sense of family & home that he can’t connect to

‘very loud and very fast’

* Repetition of ‘very’. Emphasises difficulty of communication
* confident, assertive from word choice ‘loud’
* WC ‘fast’, dynamic

‘I could not answer her/I could not understand her.’

* ‘I could not’ repetition, emphasises the language barrier, establishing a sense of regret, helplessness and frustration
* ‘understand’ WC
* language barrier. Creates a deeper remove - can’t connect with her as a person

Stanza 2 quotes

* ‘She wore men’s boots when she wore any’
* ‘I can see her strong foot’
* ‘stained with peat’
* ‘paddling…treadle…spinning wheel’
* ‘drew yarn marvellously out of the air.’
* ‘her right hand drew yarn’

‘She wore men’s boots’

* ‘men’s’ WC
* Rejected societal norms/isolation of rural community
* Hard-working, practicality. Connotations of toughness, hardiness

‘when she wore any’ WC

* At one with nature, connected to it
* Rejected societal norms/isolation of rural community

‘I can see her strong foot’

* Tone: reminiscent, nostalgic
* Can remember so clearly as if he can see her right now, remembers fondly. Can connect with and remember her without the need to communicate verbally

‘strong foot’

synecdoche where one part represents whole

‘stained with peat’

Permanent connection to nature. Also signifies the depth of the memory for him as well (stains his memory)

‘paddling…treadle…spinning wheel’

* Consonance, repeated ‘l’ sound
* Sentence structure, flowing lines with a sense of movement and busyness and pace echoed with words, accentuates the lengthiness of the spinning process. Creates sense of movement and activity which MacCaig associates with his Aunt

‘drew yarn marvellously out of the air.’

Conveys the air of magic or illusion about the task. It is almost entrancing for the young boy watching

‘her right hand drew yarn’

Long vowels elongate the line. This helps convey the impression of the wool being stretched out and made taut

Stanza 3 quotes

* ‘Hers was the only house’
* ‘absolute darkness’
* ‘a box bed’
* ‘crickets being friendly’

‘Hers was the only house’

* ‘Hers’ - emphasises importance to him and bond that went beyond language
* ‘only’ - unique, singular, connection to Gaelic culture and sense of natural connection within that

‘absolute darkness’ / ‘a box bed’

Not fazed by intensity of this. In this potentially daunting/scary setting, he feels safe & comfortable

‘crickets being friendly’

Anthropomorphism (animals having human qualities). Comfort of nature in his presence, silence of a rural setting

Stanza 4

* Poet uses metaphors that have a chaotic energy. He likens her to natural forces and practical equipment which emphasises her being connected with nature & practical.
* Despite the arduousness of this lifestyle, there is a pride and honesty to this life that the speaker obviously admires

Stanza 4 quotes

* ‘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.’

‘She was buckets/and water flouncing into them.’

* ‘buckets’ - Practical but reminiscent of childhood fun
* ‘flouncing’ - WC playful, positive, jolly tone, whimsical. Describes deliberate, vigorous way she moved

‘She was winds pouring wetly round house-ends’

* ‘was winds pouring wetly’ - Alliteration: Very typical Scottish highlands weather - connection
* Intensity, unstoppable, unyielding
* She is a chaotic force of nature. Chaotic but grounded in nature, constantly moving, always changing, unstoppable, unyielding, wonderfully natural force

‘She was brown eggs, black skirts and a keeper of threepennybits in a teapot.’

* She is inherently connected with rural/traditional lifestyle (a little part of it died when she did)
* ‘keeper’ - safe and protected
* Remembers fondly things from his childhood

‘She was’

* Anaphora: repeated phrase to start each stanza/line
* Wide triadic structure

Stanza 5 quotes

* ‘Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast’
* ‘By the time I had learned a little’
* ‘she lay/silenced’
* ‘absolute black’
* ‘sandy grave’
* ‘But I hear her still, welcoming me with a seagull’s voice’
* ‘getting angry, getting angry’
* ‘with so many questions/unanswered’

‘Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast’

* Repetition
* Framing circular narrative. Reminder of her strength and presence and their lack of communication
* Repeating opening lines of the poem, however, now as a darker tone emerges

‘By the time I had learned a little’

Tone of regret. Pathos created. Regret for never connecting/communicating and learning what she meant to him

‘she lay/silenced’

* ‘lay’ - contrasts with her life where she was always moving
* ‘silenced’ WC - contrasts her loud, talkative nature. Tone seems almost accusatory as if blaming death for suffocating and stopping her voice
* Lost of Gaelic. Imposed upon her unwillingly

‘absolute black’

* Sinister unsettling tone continues
* Unlike the comforting security of the ‘absolute darkness’ of the box bed from 3rd Stanza, the subtle shift from ‘darkness’ to ‘black’ conveys the frighteningly bleak void of death
* unchanging, irreversible, sense of regret
* lost the safety and comfort of her presence

‘sandy grave’

connection to nature, even in death

‘But I hear her still, welcoming me with a seagull’s voice’

* ‘But’ WC - Turning point/change in tone from sombre, regretful and solemn, to fondly reminiscent. Even death won’t really silence her
* Poet challenges finality of death
* ‘seagull’s voice’ metaphor - loud, constant, piercing, shrill can’t understand her, unintelligible

‘getting angry, getting angry’

* Repetition: frustration of death of both her and language, inability to communicate
* Unclear who is angry, suggests both frustrated

‘with so many questions/unanswered’

* The final word is left on a line on its own. This reinforces the speaker’s enduring sense of frustration
* The ending is somewhat ambiguous and could be interpreted a number of ways. Either her frustrations that h ‘could not answer her’, due to his lack of Gaelic, or all the questions he would have liked to ask but was unable until it was too late
* Anger/regret he couldn’t answer her and she couldn’t answer him