Norman MacCaig

            The two poems Brooklyn Cop and Hotel Room 12th Floor both written by Norman MacCaig are both giving two different views of New York. Hotel Room 12th Floor is looking down on the streets of New York. Brooklyn Cop is focusing on a typical American policeman. Both poems put across the same clear message that savagery lies beneath civilisation and the dividing line between is very thin. MacCaig gives us two different and very clear views of the city which is under threat.
             In verse one of Brooklyn Cop, MacCaig starts of with a simile, "Built like a gorilla, but less timid" the simile is used in a really effective way, it is comparing a cop with a gorilla, clearly sending across the message that the cop is big built, he also adds a bit of humour in this part of the poem - making out that the cop is tougher than a gorilla. MacCaig uses a metaphor saying that the gorilla is "thick fleshed" to again emphasise the cop as being big built or it could also mean that the cop is careless. At the start of this verse MacCaig makes out the cop has no feelings although it later says ".when he said 'see you, babe' to his wife" it is telling you that the cop is married therefore must have feelings.
             In Hotel Room, verse one MacCaig is looking at an overview of New York. In the second line he uses a simile which is describing how dwarfed the helicopter looks compared to all the large towering buildings next to it. "A helicopter skirting like a damaged insect". The "damaged insect" in the quote gives you a picture of the helicopter having an unsteady, eratic flight. MacCaig talks about the famous landmark, the empire state building, and in his opinion this landmark is a "jumbo sized dentist drill". This is a metaphor. This gives the reader an unpleasant image of what the empire state building is like in MacCaigs eyes. There is also a bit of alliteration being used here in "dentist drill". This, to me, makes it stand out more.