Robbiedempsey's Blog



‘Hotel Room 12th Floor’, by Norman MacCaig, depicts one of the world’s most famous locations- the New York skyline. The speaker’s internal monologue creates a picture of modern capitalist society's most famous city, which, as the poem progresses, becomes increasingly infected with creeping dread and despair. MacCaig scrapes away at New York’s exterior glamour to reveal the violence which lies beneath. This helps conveys MacCaig’s fundamental theme: man’s savagery and propensity to violence have never disappeared. At the poem’s outset, MacCaig uses unusual imagery to create a powerful impression of some of New York’s most famous buildings. In the first stanza, the speaker, who is isolated in his hotel room, looks out at the famous skyline and sees a ‘helicopter skirting like a damaged insect’. This original and striking simile is effective because it captures the erratic movement of the helicopter and its size when viewed from a distance. It also makes the helicopter seem insignificant, as this astonishing feat of modern technology is reduced to little more than a fly, hardly the most powerful or impressive of creatures. This dismissive attitude is reinforced through the word choice of ‘damaged’, which suggests something imperfect or broken- much like MacCaig’s view of New York’s violent society. These darker connotations are developed further when the reader remembers that flies are often found around death and decay. Such negativity helps to foreshadow the despair and violence that the latter parts of MacCaig’s poem focus on; there are already suggestions that the city’s wealth is unable to disguise its rotten core.The speaker’s dismissive attitude towards New York’s famous landmarks is again underlined through MacCaig’s use of metaphor when describing the Empire State Building. He is far from impressed by this giant skyscraper: “thatJumbo size dentist’s drill.”Enjambment is effectively used here by the poet to emphasise this already powerful image. Visually, the metaphor is successful because the Empire State Building narrows towards the top and has a long thin radio mast, much like the shape of the drill. Again, MacCaig adopts a slightly comic tone to mock what he is describing. This is achieved through the word choice of ‘jumbo’, which suggests something comically oversized. There are also much darker connotations, which are emphasised by the plosive alliteration of ‘d’. This second part of the image carries connotation of pain and decay, again foreshadowing the savagery and suffering that exist on New York’s streets. These initial suggestions of something much darker lurking in New York’s shadows are developed through MacCaig’s use of contrast. The poem contains several apparent contrasts: night and day; light and dark; civilisation and savagery; the Wild West and the modern, capitalist West. The most important contrast in the first stanza is between night and day. The first part of this stanza takes place in the morning and is written in the past tense. However, there is a turning point in the poem with the arrival of nigh time:“But now Midnight has come infrom foreign places.”MacCaig’s use of personification here helps to create an impression that the darkness that night time brings is an unwelcome invader, almost like an enemy army. The sense of unease that this brings is compounded by the use of present tense, which creates sense of danger and immediacy. Midnight is used throughout the poem by MacCaig to symbolise the savagery and propensity to violence that is part of the human condition. He goes on to describe the attempts of New York’s inhabitants to conquer this:“Its uncivilised darknessis shot at by a million lit windows, allups and acrosses.”This powerful image suggests a war between light and dark, which traditionally symbolise good and evil (particularly in Christianity). The residents of New York believe they are safely ensconced within their flats and their lights battle the darkness and what it represents. However, this is clearly a losing battle as midnight will inevitably come, just as day will always turn to night and evil will always exist within our societies. The futility of their struggle is emphasised by the image of a giant crossword puzzle, suggesting that the city’s progress amounts to little more than a pointless game. Also, a crossword puzzle contains both white and black squares, thus suggesting that good and evil are not completely separate; they both exist as part of the one society. The dominance of darkness is accompanied by a concentration on the aural in the second stanza. Just as the light has disappeared, the visual images of the first stanza are replaced by a series of disturbing sounds. At this point, the speaker’s interaction with the world recedes. He is no longer standing at the window (as he was in the first stanza) but has withdrawn to his bed ‘betweena radio and a television set.’ These are symbols of modern technological advance and communication. Yet, they are unable to drown out the violent noises from the streets:“police cars and ambulances racingto broken bones.”It is noticeable here that these symbols of authority can only arrive after the violence, are powerless to stop it, much like the darkness could not be defeated. Furthermore, MacCaig’s use of synecdoche depersonalises the suffering and so highlights that anyone can fall victim to violence. The long sentence that is used for the majority of this stanza gives a sense that the sounds are overwhelming the speaker, climaxing in ‘the harsh screaming from coldwater flats.’ The word choice highlights the unpleasant nature of these sounds. There is also a connection made here between the poverty of those without hot water and the violence of the streets. This existence of savagery within New York is further highlighted through the poet’s use of Wild West references. Throughout the poem, MacCaig compares aspects of New York to one of the bloodiest episodes in America’s history:“ the wildest of warwhoops continually ululating through the glittering canyons and gulches.”MacCaig’s use of onomatopoeia and alliteration here highlight the screams coming from New York’s streets. These modern day sounds of suffering are being compared to the war cries of Native American warriors. Also, the second metaphor compares the streets between the brightly lit modern skyscrapers and remind us of the landscape of the wild west where ambushes and violent battles took place.?Again, McCaig is juxtaposing symbols of wealth with violence and poverty. This similarity between America ’s past and present suggests that although mankind has advanced economically and technologically we are no more civilised than we were in our barbaric past.The poem’s final stanza strongly reinforces the poem’s central theme. The structure of two, short and emphatic statements, coupled with the use of Wild West imagery effectively conveys our inability to eradicate man’s inhumanity to man:“The frontier is neversomewhere else”A frontier is an area near or beyond a boundary. It is a term associated with the ‘Wild West’ where it would be the fringe of areas taken by the settlers. This boundary would divide the supposedly savage Native Americans and the European settlers who, despite their violent ways, believed they were civilised. For me, MacCaig is suggesting that such an easy distinction between civilisation and savagery never has and never will exist. This is reinforced in the poem’s final line:“And no stockadescan keep the midnight out.”Stockades were high fences built to protect those who live inside them.? What MacCaig is suggesting is that no matter how high we build our buildings, develop our technology or increase our prosperity, evil will always exist within us.? The idea of midnight (and the unknown) attacking the speaker (and civilisation) continues to the end of the poem. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download