Memorial is a lament for the dead, for a beloved person in MacCaig’s life. The poem explores the rawness of grief and uncovers the ways loss pervades every aspect of his life.
This poem is written in free verse. Like all of MacCaig’s poetry, the themes and central ideas are readily accessible through conversational style and simple language.
Written from a first person stance in the past tense, the poem is divided by stanzas into three main sections:
The fluidity and looseness of the structure also helps to reinforce the key message of the poem which focuses on death and the grieving process.
Death of a loved one itself represents a formlessness, a loss of structure, the disintegration of close bonds of love and affection. Hence the poet reflects on this in the way he constructs the poem.