33 by MacGillivray

• 33 is one of a series of thirty-five sonnets by MacGillivray about Mary, Queen of Scots.
• The poems count down from thirty-five to one, as Mary faces her execution in 1587.
• It is told from Mary's perspective and takes the form of a dream vision.
• The poem is a Petrarchan Sonnet..
• In the octet , Mary observes a funeral barge carrying the dead.
• In the sestet Mary addresses the boat, noting that it represents both her death, and the death of her fear of death.

33 explores themes of:

• power
• death
• duality

You can read 33 by MacGillivray on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

MacGillivray is the pen name and stage name of the writer Kirsten Norrie, who is also a musician and performance artist. She draws heavily on Scottish tradition, folklore and history in her work.

'33' is one of a series of thirty-five sonnets about Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587).

Mary became queen at only six days old when her father, James V of Scotland, died. For most of her childhood she lived in France and Scotland was ruled by regents in her stead.

Mary was Catholic and when she returned to Scotland in 1561, she was frequently attacked in the predominantly Protestant country for her Catholic faith. In 1567 she was imprisoned for the first time and forced to give up her throne to her one year old son, James VI. Soon after this she fled to England, hoping for support from her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. But, Mary was a threat to Elizabeth's position as queen, so Elizabeth had her held prisoner, on the grounds that it was Mary's safety. Mary was accused of plotting against Elizabeth, and after more than eighteen years in prison, she was executed in 1587.

There are 35 sonnets in MacGillivray’s sequence of poems. The sonnets count down from 35 to 1, representing the steps took to the execution block, so 33 is the third poem in the sequence.,

Each of the poems has Mary as the speaker, reflecting on her life and impending death. In '33', Mary contemplates her death through a series of images, including a chandelier made of driftwood rescued from shipwrecks, the barge or barque that would transport the bodies of royalty to the afterlife, the figurehead of the ship which Mary sees as a representation of God, and the duality of fire and water, light and dark.

Learn more about Mary, Queen of Scots: Mary Queen of Scots and the Reformation

'33' is told from Mary's perspective as she experiences a dream vision. This is a literary device that allows a journey, reflection and a realisation to take place within a dream.

The poem is written as a Petrarchan Sonnet. This was a favourite form that Mary, Queen of Scots used to write her own poetry.

• Like all sonnets, it has fourteen lines.
• It is divided into an octave (eight line) section and a sestet (six line) section.
• The octave rhymes ABBAABBA and sets up a problem or situation. In '33' it is Mary’s impending death and her fear of it.
• The sestet has the rhyme scheme CCDCDC and provides a resolution. Here, this is shown by Mary’s acceptance of her imminent fate and a realisation that there is duality everywhere, some good even in the worst situations.

Petrarchan sonnets are usually written in iambic pentameter but ‘33’ has lines that vary in length between nine and 13 syllables, and the stress is irregular. Lines flow into each other, which reflects the dreamlike flow of the images Mary sees and her drifting thoughts.

I dreamed of a sawdust chandelier

The ‘I’ of the poem is Mary, Queen of Scots, so she is the speaker, and it is her thoughts we follow.

The word ‘dreamed’ immediately takes us to the central idea of the poem, a vision created by Mary's unconscious while she sleeps. The fact we are entering a dream allows the poet to create surreal imagery that would not make sense in real life.

The ‘sawdust chandelier’ is an image of something impossible. Instead of an elaborate glass structure hanging from the ceiling in a palace, this light is made of sawdust, a waste product found on the floor of the most ordinary room.

• Sawdust has no structure, so the image suggests something that is an illusion or impermanent.
• It is also highly flammable, so the structure would quickly be burned up by candle flames.

This juxtaposition symbolises how riches and power can quickly be taken away, which aligns with Mary’s position for much of her life. As queen, she appeared to hold great power, but all the time others were undermining her position, until she ended up alone and powerless.

This imagery is continued into the second line where we are told that the crystals in this chandelier are made of wood. Instead of something clear and sparkling, the material used is dull and unwanted.

crystals were drops of driftwood dredged

The description uses alliteration of the ‘dr’ sound. This can be seen as onomatopoeic with the scraping sound made when pulling something along or raising something from the sea bed.

The line ends with ‘dredged’, the enjambment stressing this action of recovering something from underwater, and allowing the image to flow into the next line. It also serves the rhyme scheme: 'dredged' is a half-rhyme with ‘head’, ‘dead’ and ‘dread’.

from all the world’s shipwrecks: god’s figurehead,

The chandelier is not just constructed from one shipwreck, but the driftwood is taken from ‘all the world’s shipwrecks’. This hyperbole creates a powerful image. Rather than one destroyed ship we can picture a great number of sunken boats, almost like bodies in a graveyard. This adds to the atmosphere of mystery and the macabre. The ‘figurehead’ is the face or statue that adorns the front of the ship so it is metaphorically something that comes first. This is no ordinary figurehead but ‘god’s’ suggesting its importance. It could be that Mary sees this figurehead as herself, a leader chosen by god to rule.

and it swung, as I dreamt, ever closer to my fear,

A chandelier hangs from the ceiling on a chain or cable so it would swing if blown by the wind. The nautical references suggest the chandelier is on a boat, so the movement of the waves would be the cause of its swinging.

We are then reminded that this is a dream, and the use of 'I' reintroduces Mary as a focus. When she sees the chandelier swinging ‘ever closer to my fear’ she is reflecting on her terror of her execution. The image of the chandelier swinging resembles the pendulum of a clock which swings to mark time. In the dream, Mary is aware of her impending death, and her time is running out.

The imagery of the chandelier shifts again. The swinging motion changes from that of a pendulum, to the swinging of a 'thurible':

softly releasing sweet incense into the clear, / black night air, as that great barge carries the dead,

A ‘thurible’ is an incense burner, which hangs from a chain. It is carried and swung to spread the incense smoke during processions and religious ceremonies. It is used in Roman Catholic funerals, where it is swung over and around the coffin to bless and purify the body of the deceased. This is a particularly symbolic image given Mary's deep Catholic beliefs. It suggests she is seeing beyond the moment of her execution. The word choice here seems positive and comforting, with the incense being ‘sweet’ and ‘softly’ released into ‘clear’ air. Although clear, this is happening in ‘black night air’ which adds a touch of foreboding and links back to the word ‘fear’. 'Black' again suggests a funeral and together with 'night' could suggest the eternity of death. But through this, the positive imagery of incense smoke can symbolise Mary's faith standing out in the darkness, suggesting her soul rising to heaven.

as that great barge carries the dead,

The ‘barge’ that ‘carries the dead’ could allude to funeral barges used in ancient Egypt to transport dead people along the River Nile to their tombs.

Line seven tells the reader that instead of the barge carrying Mary's dead body, it is moving her dread, her fear of what is coming.

but instead of my death, it passaged my dread

This line is quite balanced, hinged on the caesura in the middle of the line. It moves the reader easily into the last line of this verse.

and the water it ploughed comprised of one tear.

We imagine a boat moving through the water as a plough moves through a field: the prow of the ship, like the blade of the plough, parting the water, or the earth in the field, into two waves.

The 'great' barge is sizeable, as is the body of water it is moving through. Hyperbole is used in this line when Mary says this water is only 'one tear'. Such is the enormity of her death and the grief it causes, that one tear can fill a huge space, big enough for a boat to move through.

MacGillivray uses hyperbole in the octave of this poem to symbolise the vast, overwhelming task ahead of the speaker - the walk to her own death, and meeting her maker.Brush up on your understanding of hyperbole with this short video for Higher English.

Great smouldering barque

The sestet sees a change in tone. This volta moves the poem from Mary dreaming, fearfully observing imagery of death, to her speaking directly to the ship, and recognising that it is carrying away her fear of death.

The word 'great’ was used in the octet in reference to a 'great barge'. It suggests both a sense of scale, and a sense of quality and importance. This is a huge ship, one that can carry many of the dead. And it is a ship that carries kings and queens, people of great status. Mary is recognising her own status and importance.

The ship is ‘smouldering’, while links back to the imagery of smoke and incense. There is a suggestion that there is a fire on board, but one that is burning slowly.

The word ‘barque’ is now used instead of 'barge'. This alludes more clearly to the solar barque from ancient Egyptian beliefs that would transport pharaohs into the afterlife.

It also carries Catholic significance. The Barque of St. Peter is a metaphor for the Catholic Church. St Peter was a fisherman who went on to become the first pope. The imagery suggests the Church is a boat that is steered by the pope. To the Catholic Mary, this symbol could represent the comfort and security of her Catholic faith carrying her along. The fact it is 'smouldering' suggests the Catholic Church has been damaged but perhaps that it will sail on despite this

Next we have the second reference to the ‘figurehead’ in this poem. This time the figurehead ‘sings into the dark’. This contrast suggests defiance; although things are bleak, the song suggests it will withstand this 'dark' time. The personification of the figurehead adds to the sense of spirituality.

However, this time the song is ‘the death song of queens, of kings’. Mary is acknowledging her impending execution. But through her death she is linked to other royal figures from the past. Perhaps she now sees that her memory will live on as their do.

over sea birds that circle like faint rings of smoke,

Line eleven tells the reader the song is going out over the sea, and the birds are said to be ‘circling’. Perhaps they are circling as vultures or crows would, waiting for something to die. Or they could symbolise souls rising to heaven, or escorting the dead to heaven. A simile compares the birds' movement to rings of smoke, which again links back to the imagery of incense, burning and fire.

your floating lamp burns

Floating lamps are traditionally used as part of a funeral or memorial in many Asian countries such as Japan, China and Vietnam. In line twelve it is ‘your’ floating lamp. Does 'your' refer to ‘god', as it did before, or Mary speaking to herself - are these lamps part of her own funeral? Again we have the image of fire with ‘burns’ and the contrasting ideas of fire and water.

as a lighthouse brings / death to itself: you are moth and flame both –

The lighthouse is another reference to fire. In Mary's time a lighthouse would be a burning beacon, which is both destructive and protective. The image juxtaposed ideas of being both beacons of safety and warnings of danger. One reading would be that in dying as a martyr, Mary is somehow protecting others.

In the penultimate line ‘you are moth and flame both’ suggests Mary is still addressing either god, or herself, or death. There seem to be mixed feelings about the impending execution - the moth is attracted to the flame which kills it. The comparison makes her death feel inevitable, as if it is something that she has been drawn towards and which could not be resisted.

so lamp lights my dread of shade, performs two killings.

In the final line of the poem, the fear of the dark is extinguished. Although the burning lamp is an image of fire and destruction, the light it brings overcomes darkness, and also the fear of the dark ('dread of shade').

And so the poem ends with the idea of 'two killings’:

• the fuel of the lamp burns up at the same time as the darkness is overcome
• in facing her execution, Mary acknowledges her own death, while overcoming her fear.

The personification of the figurehead emphasises the spiritual undertones of this sonnet. Check your understanding of personification with this short video for Higher English.

The fact that Mary, Queen of Scots was the queen of her country tells us that power, and losing that power, is a theme of this poem. In this poem Mary is about to be executed for treason and is contemplating her death and her dramatic fall from grace.

The poem starts with a ‘chandelier’ which symbolises power and wealth but rather than gold and crystal it is made of ‘sawdust’ which is a waste product, and ‘driftwood’ which has sunk to the bottom of the sea. She is so consumed by fear and sorrow that ‘one tear’ comprises an entire body of water that could be ‘ploughed’ through by a ship. The ‘moth and flame’ towards the end of the poem suggest that Mary has realised that just as a moth is drawn to the fire that could cause its death, so too was Mary drawn to the power that has caused hers.

The theme of power is also shown in the other poems:

The dominating theme of this poem is death. Mary is going down to her execution and is moments away from death.

The first image of the poem is the chandelier made from driftwood dredged from ‘all the world’s shipwrecks’ which immediately makes us think of the souls that may have drowned in these wrecks. The chandelier swings and makes us think of a pendulum counting time and each time it swings it gets ‘ever closer to my fear’.

Mary’s fear is also described as ‘dread’ which is rhymed with ‘dead’ as we are told of the barge or barque that carries the dead to the afterlife. At this point, towards the end of the octave, Mary says it is transporting her fear of death but in the sestet which follows we see Mary reconciling herself with the fact that she is about to die:

• ‘your death lamp of queens’
• ‘your floating lamp burns’

The very last line brings the two ideas of fear and death together as the lamp kills the dark Mary is afraid of and brings her own death at the same time.

The theme of death is also shown in the other poems:

The duality of human nature, of the world is explored in this poem through the use of many contrasts such as ‘sawdust chandelier’ in the octave. It is more apparent in the sestet, however, and it is in this second part of a Petrarchan Sonnet that resolution and conclusions are reached. Having identified her fear of death in the first eight lines, Mary now comes to the conclusion that there are two sides to everything and even in the final moments of her life, when all she has stood for is crumbling, she finds relief.

• In ‘your figurehead sings into the dark’ (lines 9-10) we have the idea of remaining alive, positive and defiant in the face of death
• ‘your floating lamp burns’ in line 12 contrasts fire and water whilst describing the act of mourning the dead with light
• ‘as a lighthouse brings death to itself’ again contrasts light with dark, and life with death, as the light protects sailors from perishing on the rocks

The final lines of the poem compare herself with a moth that is attracted to the flame that will bring its own death, suggesting Mary has perhaps been unable to stop herself living the life that she has and has been drawn to danger. There is a suggestion, too, that she will be a martyr to her cause and the legacy she leaves will be worth her sacrifice. Continuing the dual nature of her feelings into the last line of the poem we learn that:

lamp lights my dread of shade

This suggests that she is at peace with her impending death, and perhaps there is even a relief in the death she faces. This duality is confirmed in the ‘two killings’ at the very end of the poem as she will have been executed but also this will end her suffering and fear.

The theme of duality is also shown in the other poems:

Perhaps the clearest comparison to all other poems in this collection is that they all comment on humanity, particularly the idea of taking wider significance from a very individual experience.

The theme of humanity is also shown in the other poems: