Connections (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Connections
Understanding connections in the exam
When answering comparison questions about '33' by MacGillivray, you will need to explore how this poem shares themes, techniques, or concerns with other poems in the collection. The exam typically asks you to discuss how poets use imagery and symbolism to explore central concerns. This means looking at both what the poems say and how they say it.
The connections between poems are not always straightforward. Poems can share similar themes but approach them differently, or they can use similar techniques to achieve different effects. Your task is to identify meaningful links and explain how they work.
Poems that work well for comparison
The following poems connect particularly well with '33' and offer rich material for comparison:
'Thomas the Rhymer' (traditional ballad) shares themes of fate, destiny, and journey. Both poems explore what happens when characters face predetermined paths and encounter moments that will define them. The ballad tradition in 'Thomas the Rhymer' creates a sense of inevitability that echoes the speaker's anticipation in '33'.
'Composed in August' by Robert Burns connects through its engagement with time, nature, and human mortality. Burns reflects on the passage of time and natural cycles, which relates to how MacGillivray uses the speaker's age (33) as a marker of time and mortality. Both poems position the speaker within the natural world while contemplating their place in it.
'Da Clearance' by Rhoda Bulter offers connections through themes of memory, loss, and the relationship between people and place. Where '33' anticipates death and considers what will be left behind, 'Da Clearance' looks back at what has been lost. Both poems explore how identity connects to specific locations and moments in time.
'Summit at Corrie Etchachan' by Nan Shepherd shares strong connections through nature, place, and human experience within the landscape. Shepherd's poem, like '33', presents a specific moment in a particular setting where the speaker experiences something profound. Both poets use the Scottish landscape as more than just backdrop—it becomes central to meaning.
'The Bonnie Broukit Bairn' by Hugh MacDiarmid connects through its use of voice, perspective, and how it positions humanity within a larger context. Both poems ask questions about human significance and use imagery to create particular emotional responses. MacDiarmid's cosmic perspective offers an interesting contrast to MacGillivray's more intimate, personal moment.
Thematic connections across the collection
The visual diagram in the source material maps out how '33' connects to other poems through overlapping themes. Understanding these connections helps you see patterns across the collection.
Identity and voice
'33' explores identity through the speaker's age and their position at a particular life stage. The poem connects to 'Da Clearance' and 'Bonnie Broukit Bairn' through questions of who we are and how we understand ourselves. 'Thomas the Rhymer' also engages with identity, particularly how encounters and choices shape who we become. The theme of status and class appears in several poems, affecting how characters see themselves and are seen by others.
Voice and perspective emerge as important concerns across multiple poems. How the speaker tells their story, what they choose to reveal, and how they position themselves matters. In '33', the first-person voice creates intimacy and immediacy, similar to how other poems in the collection use voice to draw readers into particular experiences.
Nature and environment
The natural world features prominently in '33' and connects to several poems. 'Summit at Corrie Etchachan', 'Thomas the Rhymer', and 'Da Clearance' all engage with how humans experience and relate to nature. In some poems, nature provides setting; in others, it becomes symbolic or even threatening.
'Composed in August' uses seasonal change and natural imagery to explore mortality and time's passage. The natural world in these poems often reflects or comments on human concerns—the environment becomes a way to explore internal states or larger questions about existence.
Place and setting
Setting functions differently across poems but remains important throughout. In '33', the specific location of the Cuillin ridge matters—it's not just any mountain. Similarly, 'Summit at Corrie Etchachan' names a particular place, and 'Da Clearance' roots its concerns in a specific Scottish community.
The theme of place extends beyond physical location to include belonging, displacement, and how geography shapes identity. '33' connects to 'Da Clearance' and 'Bonnie Broukit Bairn' through this broader sense of place—where we are positioned in the world, both physically and existentially.
Human experience and relationships
Several poems, including '33', explore fundamental human experiences. The diagram shows connections through relationships—whether between people, between humans and nature, or between individuals and their communities. 'Thomas the Rhymer' and 'Composed in August' both appear in this cluster, suggesting they deal with how people relate to others and to the world around them.
Conflict emerges as another connecting thread. This might be internal conflict, as the speaker in '33' contemplates their mortality, or external conflict between different forces or desires. 'Da Clearance' and 'Bonnie Broukit Bairn' also engage with various forms of conflict.
The concept of strong emotion links poems that deal with intense feelings—whether fear, desire, loss, or wonder. '33' conveys the speaker's complex emotional state through its imagery and language choices, connecting it to other emotionally charged poems in the collection.
Journey and time
'33' fits within a cluster of poems concerned with journey—both literal physical journeys and metaphorical journeys through life. 'Thomas the Rhymer' tells of a journey into the fairy realm, while 'Summit at Corrie Etchachan' describes a mountain journey. These physical journeys often symbolise larger patterns of change and development.
The theme of time appears across multiple poems. In '33', the speaker's age becomes meaningful—33 years represents a specific moment with particular significance. 'Composed in August' and 'Bonnie Broukit Bairn' also engage with temporal concerns, whether through seasonal change, historical time, or the lifespan of individuals.
Event and moment connect to how poems capture specific instants that carry larger meaning. The moment described in '33'—standing on the ridge, anticipating death—becomes representative of broader human concerns. Other poems similarly focus on particular moments that reveal something beyond themselves.
The concept of fate and destiny links several poems. 'Thomas the Rhymer' explicitly deals with predetermined fate, while '33' suggests the speaker's awareness of their future death creates a sense of destiny or inevitability.
Mortality and legacy
Death and mortality form strong thematic links across the collection. '33' directly confronts the speaker's anticipated death, making it comparable to other poems that deal with endings, loss, and what remains after we're gone. 'Da Clearance' and 'Composed in August' both engage with mortality, though from different angles.
Memory connects to mortality through questions of what persists. If '33' concerns itself with the speaker's impending death, it implicitly raises questions about what will be remembered. 'Da Clearance' explicitly explores memory and loss, making it a strong comparison text.
Legacy emerges as a related concern—what we leave behind, how we're remembered, and what survives us. This connects to broader questions about meaning and significance that run through multiple poems in the collection.
Local and universal
Several poems, including '33', balance local specificity with universal concerns. The poem names specific Scottish places and uses Scottish settings, grounding it in particular geography and culture. Yet the themes it explores—mortality, fear, human vulnerability—extend beyond any single location. This tension between the specifically Scottish and the broadly human appears in other collection poems, particularly 'Bonnie Broukit Bairn', 'Da Clearance', and 'Summit at Corrie Etchachan'.
Using connections in exam answers
When writing comparison answers, you need to do more than identify shared themes. Start by establishing what the poems have in common, then explore how each poet approaches this shared concern differently.
Worked Example: Comparing Approaches to Mortality
If comparing '33' with 'Composed in August' on mortality, you might note that both poems use natural imagery to explore death.
MacGillivray's approach: Uses the mountain landscape to create a sense of danger and anticipation
Burns's approach: Uses seasonal change to suggest natural cycles of life and death
Key insight: Both employ imagery of nature, but to different effects and with different tones.
Always support your points with specific references to the text. Quote directly when discussing particular word choices or phrases, and explain how the language creates meaning. Don't just identify techniques—explain what they achieve and why this matters for the poem's overall concerns.
Consider both similarities and differences. Two poems might share a theme but approach it from contrasting perspectives. These differences can be just as revealing as similarities, showing the range of ways poets can engage with similar concerns.
Remember!
- '33' connects to other collection poems through multiple themes, including mortality, journey, nature, time, and identity
- The five strongest comparison poems are 'Thomas the Rhymer', 'Composed in August', 'Da Clearance', 'Summit at Corrie Etchachan', and 'The Bonnie Broukit Bairn'
- Effective comparison explores both how poems are similar and how they differ in their treatment of shared themes
- Always use specific textual evidence and explain how poetic techniques create meaning
- Remember that themes overlap and interact—poems rarely focus on just one concern