Student Question
What is the meaning of "A Visit" by Margaret Atwood?
Quick answer:
The meaning of "A Visit" by Margaret Atwood revolves around the theme of memory loss and the emotional burden of caring for someone who is losing their memory. The poem highlights the futility of trying to revive the past and suggests accepting the inevitable decline, as seen in the imagery of watching sunlight and shadows instead of struggling against the loss.
“A Visit” is written in mournful resignation from the perspective of one visiting an elderly man who is losing his memory. “Only one day remains,/The one you’re in,” Atwood writes, and in the next verse,
The memory is no friend.
It can only tell you
what you no longer have
The feeling of loss is heavy in this poem, manifested in the burden of caring for someone who can no longer remember details of his past. We learn much about the man: he can no longer use his right hand, possibly due to an accident. We know he was a carpenter, for in an attempt to focus his memory on things he is familiar with, the speaker suggests talking “about axes” and “the many kinds of wood.” He or she speaks with patience, placating the man when he gets confused, speaking in consoling tones: “Let’s not panic,” the speaker says,...
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and attempts to direct the conversation toward building, and yet nothing works. “The toolbox/refuses to reveal its verbs,” and all the tools within are stripped of their names, becoming only conglomerates of the materials used to make them. Thepersonification of the toolbox here suggests the obstinacy of memory loss, the tenacity with which it clings to its victim.
In the final two verses of the poem, when the man has confessed that he recognizes nothing but his bed, that which is his constant companion, the speaker resigns him- or herself to the futility of these memory exercises. “Better,” the speaker says,
to watch the stream
that flows across the floor
and is made of sunlight,
the forest made of shadows;
better to watch the fireplace
which is now a beach.
This could be in reference to the total displacement of the man in time and space, who believes himself to be out in the natural world, or it could be a metaphor; either way, it makes the case for relenting – giving in to the natural processes at play and coming to terms with the fact that nothing can be done to halt the degeneration of memory.