Hotel Room, 12th Floor

SQA Higher English 2022

Summary

The poet sits in a hotel room and 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗬𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆. He makes reference to the achievements of modern-day America, but also considers the violent past of the country. He suggests that technological progress has not resulted in societal civility, and predicts that evil will always exist as a part of human life.

Themes

❥ Isolation
❥ Poverty (the poet suggests that a material-obsessed society harms the poor the most)
❥ Helplessness
❥ Lack of civilisation
❥ Human condition (although New York appears to be the centre of modern western civilisation, the poet wonders how far the country has come from its bloody past)
❥ Violence (the poem questions humanity's ability to defeat primitive impulses and suggests humanity cannot completely eradicate evil)

Characters

❥ Speaker

Structure

❥ First person narrator (documents a personal experience but also poses broader questions about humanity)
❥ Free verse (allows poet to explore themes without a restrictive, defined structure)
❥ Consists of 3 stanzas
1. Focuses on the modern appearance of the city in the day
2. Explores the threatening night world and links it to the Wild West
3. Summarises the poem's themes and brings together societal concerns (simple sentences for straight forward, bleak messages)

'Hotel Room, 12th Floor'

❥ Title
❥ Generic, nothing individual
❥ Suggests a negative view of the city (its nothing special)
❥ The height of the room isolates the speaker from the action
❥ The speaker is an outsider to the city

'I watched'

❥ Spectator isolates from the danger (helplessness)
❥ Suggests the speaker is a passive observer of civilisation (links with the sense of isolation established in the title)

'helicopter skirting'

❥ Suggests wealth and power
❥ The speaker is disdain for modern technology
❥ Word choice 'skirting' suggests purposelessness

'damaged insect'

❥ Simile
❥ Fragility of aircraft
❥ Survival difficulty in the urban environment
❥ Insects tend to be insignificant and troublesome to humans
❥ The modern invention is like an inferior copy of nature
❥ Hints to the speaker's pessimistic view of the world (it is broken and imperfect)
❥ The poet poses questions about the worth of certain technological achievements (perhaps it is society that is damaged by the pursuit of wealth?)

'jumbo size dentist's drill'

❥ Metaphor
❥ The speaker is mocking the American belief of bigger is better
❥ Poet suggests that a building of this size is pointless
❥ The poet clearly shows his disdain towards the appearance of the building
❥ Alliteration
❥ Dentist's drills have negative associations as they are disliked by humans and bring pain, suffering and unpleasantness
❥ Poet could be regarding the inequality of society and the suffering of groups of people who are left behind as progress
❥ Reveals the speaker's pessimistic tone as well as his fear

'Pan Am skyscraper'

❥ They have a helipad
❥ Place of wealth and influence
❥ These skyscrapers are symbols of American success but the poet does not describe them in flattering terms, they give the speaker a sense of place but not a sense of belonging

'midnight has come in'

❥ Personification (it has a mind of its own)
❥ Midnight seems to be savage, invasive, unwelcome and overpowering
❥ As night arrives, any sense of ease is erased

'uncivilised darkness'

❥ Word choice suggests barbaric, primitive, brutal
❥ Brings about fear
❥ The darkness represents violence
❥ Darkness is something unknown, uncouth and unwelcome
❥ The speaker's fear of the darkness is apparent
❥ Could also suggest that modern America is in conflict with anything that doesn't tie in with its view of what is civilised

'shot'

❥ Metaphor
❥ Suggests guns, violence and war
❥ Questions humanity's ability to use its own inventions to combat the inevitable return of night and darkness
❥ The futility of the battle is obvious, the darkness of night is inevitable

'ups and acrosses'

❥ Visual
❥ Represents crossword puzzles (enigmatic idea as there are no clues) and fits nicely with the notion of darkness representing the unknown
❥ 'Acrosses' includes the word 'cross' which has religious connotations
❥ Unexpected word
❥ Highlights the chaotic energy of the city and lighting

'But midnight is not / so easily defeated'

❥ Metaphor
❥ There is a switch in tone
❥ Enjambment emphasises pessimistic tone
❥ The city is beyond redemption
❥ Darkness is inevitable and unavoidable
❥ Night is a formidable enemy
❥ The sense of helplessness is revealed through this recognition of the situation

'between / a radio and a television set'

❥ Parenthesis
❥ We are surrounded by technology
❥ The speaker is trying to drown out the noise
❥ The speaker's interaction with the world slowly recedes

'wildest of warwhoops'

❥ Alliteration and onomatopoeia mimics the repetitive sound of sirens
❥ Comparison with the uncivilised wild west

'ululating'

❥ Onomatopoeic
❥ Disconcerting
❥ Screeching
❥ Suggests a cacophony of unknown, aggressive noises
❥ The city becomes a wilderness that frightens the speaker as each unknown noise is interpreted in a negative way

'glittering canyons and gulches—'

❥ Metaphor
❥ Emphasises the height of buildings
❥ Although the canyons are glittering, they are still canyons
❥ Suggests wilderness, they are words we may associate with the wild west (the civilisation of the modern world is not so civilised as we think)
❥ The dash introduces a list, highlighting the range and cruelty that is part of city life

'racing'

❥ Word choice suggests urgency, criticalness and seriousness

'broken bones'

❥ Synecdoche
❥ Alliteration (plosive sounds emphasise brutality)
❥ Depersonalises the victims (the place of humans in this society has been lost)

'coldwater flats'

❥ No access to hot water
❥ Poverty contrasts the lavish skyscrapers
❥ Technological advances aren't benefitting everybody
❥ Certain elements of society have been left behind in the pursuit of materialism

'blood / glazed on sidewalks'

❥ Enjambment emphasises savagery
❥ Symbolises the aggression and savagery of our society
❥ The blood is imprinted, creating a lasting reminder of the injuries
❥ Buildings are glazed with glass while the pavements are glazed with blood
❥ Word choice of 'sidewalks' provides authenticity

'The frontier is never / somewhere else'

❥ 'frontier' represents the invisible line between civilised, settled areas and those still subdued
❥ Evil and violence are within us all
❥ Violence is never far away, it is a product of materialism and poverty

'stockades'

❥ Defensive barrier to keep others out
❥ There is no way to keep out the darkness that still exists in humanity
❥ We will always be led astray by uncivilised instincts despite our advances