'Hotel Room, 12th Floor' (SQA National 5 English): Revision Note

Below is a guide to Norman MacCaig’s poem ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ in preparation for the SQA National 5 English exam. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an exploration of MacCaig’s techniques and methods

• Understanding the poem: an exploration of the themes and ideas within MacCaig’s poem

• Linking the poems: an understanding of how ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ connects to MacCaig’s other prescribed poems for the Scottish text section

Overview

In order to answer questions on any poem, it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• An overview of the poem

• A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section

• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Norman MacCaig’s intention and message

‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ overview

‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’, written by the poet Norman MacCaig, describes the elevated outlook of a speaker from a vantage point over New York in the 1960s. As he looks out, the speaker observes unsettling violence and chaos, comparing New York to the 19th century Wild West. The speaker questions the morality and supposed developments of the modern world against this fear-inducing background.

‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ translation 

Lines 1-5

Translation

• The poem opens with the speaker describing his viewpoint from a hotel room

• He begins a simple description of the landmarks he sees, and also how he sees them in a metaphorical (opens in a new tab)capacity

MacCaig’s intention

• The opening words “This morning” suggests the singular nature of the speaker’s experience, while “watched” establishes his role as a detached observer

• The speaker then describes the movement of a “helicopter”, a symbol of modernity in 1960s America:

  • However, a metaphor is used to compare the machine to a “damaged insect”, suggesting its appearance is deformed, unnatural and ugly

• A second metaphor is used to describe a New York landmark, “the Empire State Building”, as a “jumbo size dentist’s drill”:

  • The imagery (opens in a new tab) of “jumbo size” gives a sense of enormous scale, but the addition of “dentist’s drill” implies something that provokes fear

• The negative connotations (opens in a new tab) of these metaphors establish New York as a place of potential uncertainty and danger amid the gloss of technological advancement

• The “PanAm skyscraper” notes a further New York landmark, and thus firmly establishing the setting

Lines 6-9

Translation

• The speaker offers a sinister portrayal of New York at night, focusing on the contrast between light and dark

MacCaig’s intention

• The first word of the new verse, “But”, suggests a change, with the next word, “now” implying a shift in time from the first verse

• Pathetic fallacy (opens in a new tab) is used in the word choice of “midnight” to suggest fear or danger

• A succession of words and phrases: “foreign places”, “uncivilised”, “darkness”, then suggests a sense of the unknown, as well as New York’s rough and wild nature

• The word “shot” literally suggests violence, while the use of “million” is a hyperbole (opens in a new tab) to emphasise the vast, unmeasurable scale of the city

• The pluralisation of “ups and acrosses” further emphasises the endless procession of the city’s lights

• Overall in this verse, light and dark are presented as rivals, symbolising a struggle between the best and worst features of human nature

Lines 10-14

Translation

• The speaker describes the night-time scene in New York

MacCaig’s Intention

• This verse also starts with “But” suggesting a further change and deterioration in order

• The pathetic fallacy of “midnight” has connotations of fear, malice and danger: ideas that cannot simply be ignored (“easily defeated”):

  • The word “defeated” furthermore suggests a struggle or competition

• The speaker’s vulnerabilities are emphasised by his prostrate position (“lie in bed”) and he is now using his sense of hearing to understand the events of New York

• The speaker is depicted as “between”, a literal and metaphorical middle ground, a “radio” and a “television”:

  • The former represents the old, the latter the new

  • As a contrast, these items represent the technological development of modern America, and how the narrator is caught in the middle of these

• The speaker listens to “the wildest of warwhoops”, with the alliteration (opens in a new tab) of the “w” sound mimicking the noise of the cries, while “continually” suggests an echo or relentless noise:

  • These sounds are described as “ululating”, which literally means to howl or wail, so is therefore suggestive of very strong emotions

• New York is compared to the natural brilliance of “glittering canyons and gulches”, a stark contrast to the urban environment

• Through this comparison, New York is likened to the Wild West, an era immortalised in the Western movie genre and characterised by its lawlessness

Lines 15-18

Translation

• The speaker presents a chaotic image of a city beset by disorder, violence and suffering

MacCaig’s intention 

• The references to emergency vehicles highlight the violence and lawlessness present in New York

• The word “racing” suggests a rapid speed of movement, further emphasising a sense of danger

• The “broken bones” literally reflect painful injuries, while in a metaphorical sense the “bones” represent the damaged, morally adrift people of New York​

• Finally, the “blood glazed” pavement offers a graphic description of the terrible consequences of conflict 

Lines 19-21

Translation

• The speaker moves to his conclusive ideas about human nature, noting that the worst elements of humanity are universal and not confined to “somewhere else” 

MacCaig’s intention

• The “frontier” literally translates as the front line, but more widely means the supposed boundary between the ideal and worst features of human nature

• The phrase “never somewhere else” is a forceful rejection of the idea that the worst aspects of human nature are remote to us

• A “stockade” is a crudely formed barrier, emphasising again the threat and menace that underscores the poem

• The personification (opens in a new tab) and extended metaphor (opens in a new tab) of “midnight” is referenced a further time to illustrate the terror that night-time New York brings

• The poet concludes by implying that no barrier can hold back the worst aspects of human nature

Writer’s methods

Although this section is organised into three separate sections — form, structure and language — it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme and includes Norman MacCaig’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

The speaker in ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ uses his elevated position in the urban heart of New York to make judgements on human nature and criticise the present. The monologue (opens in a new tab) form enables the speaker to explore thoughts and feelings, and reflect on those ideas to arrive at a decisive conclusion.

Structure

‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ is a four-verse poem of varying lengths. The longer third stanza is used to represent the length of the night endured by the speaker, and this is juxtaposed (opens in a new tab) by the shorter final verse that recognises the emphatic opinions of the narrator.

Language

The flaws of humanity are described in ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’, with modernity presented through word choice, contrast and imagery as something to be feared.

Understanding the poem

For the SQA National 5 English exam, it’s important to show a clear and thoughtful understanding of the poem’s themes and main ideas, as well as how the poet’s techniques and intentions help to convey meaning. This section focuses on two main themes that MacCaig examines in ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’:

• Criticism of the present

• Human nature

Criticism of the present

• ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ is described as a present observation, starting with the simple act of looking out of a window:

  • The view offers a high-level vista across New York that gives the speaker a literal and metaphorical oversight of events in the city

• Following a negative impression of modern symbols, the poem moves into a night-time setting, with the “million” lights offering an image of something grotesquely vast and impossible to understand

• Criticism of the present grows in stanza three through the vivid description of the chaos of New York that seems to physically invade the private space of the hotel room

• The final verse asks humans to take accountability for their own actions: 

  • MacCaig suggests that we must hold up a mirror to our behaviour before looking elsewhere for immorality

Human nature

• ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ has similarities with ‘Basking Shark’ in the way that the poet attacks human arrogance

• In this poem, the speaker sees beyond the gloss and splendor of high buildings and helicopters, suggesting these items represent the worst of human nature, not the best

• The scene of chaos that follows makes this theme more explicit: 

  • New York is a place where people hurt each other in a way that is akin to the stereotypical Wild West days of America

  • In making this connection to the distant past, MacCaig implies that human nature is unchanged, and that modernity cannot mask that fact

• The poem ends with a blunt warning to not look the other way when it comes to criticising human nature, for our primary criticism should be at ourselves 

Linking the poems

Most students who study MacCaig’s poetry for the SQA National 5 exam use it to answer the Scottish text section. However, you can choose to write your critical essay on MacCaig’s poetry.

If you choose to study MacCaig for the Scottish text section, you’ll need to demonstrate a broader understanding of her poetry in the final question, as required by the SQA. This means referring to ideas, themes, or techniques from at least one of his other poems.

The six prescribed poems by Norman MacCaig are:

• ‘Aunt Julia’

• ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’

• ‘Old Highland Woman’

• ‘On Lachie’s croft’

• ‘Landscape and I’

• ‘Basking Shark’

The final question will likely concentrate on an aspect of content, such as theme or characters in the poems, or on a technique, such as use of imagery or contrast.

Below are some useful comparisons between the six prescribed poems.