In the Snack-bar by Edwin Morgan



Scottish Set Text

Poetry

of

Edwin Morgan

[pic]

‘In the Snack Bar’

‘Trio’

‘Hyena’

‘Good Friday’

‘Winter’

‘Slate’

Biography

Edwin George Morgan was born on 27 April 1920 in the West End of Glasgow. He went to Glasgow University to study English literature in 1937. While at University Morgan also studied French and Russian. The Second World War then interrupted his studies. From 1940 Morgan served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Returning to Glasgow in 1946, he graduated with first class honours the following year. Morgan then joined the staff of the English Literature Department after turning down a scholarship to Oxford. He worked as a lecturer at Glasgow until his retirement as a professor in 1980.

Morgan’s first book of poetry was published in 1952. Since then he has continued to live and work in Glasgow, producing work which has received increasing recognition at both home and abroad. In the 1960s Morgan became involved in the international concrete poetry movement, corresponded with concrete poets in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and became, along with Ian Hamilton Finlay, perhaps the major exponent of concrete poetry in these Islands. A committed internationalist, Morgan has been a prolific translator, producing versions of poems and plays from a large number of languages.

Edwin Morgan’s work has received a number of prestigious accolades and has assumed an increasingly public role. In 1999 he became Glasgow’s first official Poet Laureate and a year later received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Most recently, in 2004, Morgan became Scotland’s first official national poet or ‘Scots Makar’, charged with ‘representing and promoting Scots poetry’. In the years after his appointment to the Glasgow laureateship Morgan was an active supporter of the repeal of Section 28, criticising Church and business leaders for their support of the ‘Keep the Clause’ campaign. This endorsement of gay rights and inclusive attitudes to social and cultural difference characterised his publicly liberal stance in the 1990s and into the 21st Century.

Edwin Morgan died in Glasgow on 19 August, 2010 of pneumonia at the age of 90.

There are six poems in this collection. Morgan’s poems here deal with people, places and animals.

People

In the Snack Bar deals with the theme of the isolation in society of the disabled and centres on an old man who struggles to do even the most basic things in the most ordinary of settings, a cafe in Glasgow.

Good Friday has a range of themes centring on alcoholism and religion. This is shown through the reflections of a man on a bus, again in the centre of Glasgow.

Trio’s themes also focus on religion, and also on another aspect of Glasgow life – friendship and taking pleasure in the simplest of things.

Places

Winter is set in Glasgow and deals with the theme of change centred on an observation by the narrator of a scene at Bingham’s pond near Great Western Road.

Slate sees a shift in setting in both time and place, but still deals with the theme of change and nature. This time the setting is not Glasgow, but the creation of another part of Scotland – the Isle of Lewis.

Animals

Hyena is the only poem in the collection to deal with an animal – the hyena of the title. Morgan sees value in even a hated scavenger such as a hyena and challenges us to see it in a new light. The themes are basic: death, life and survival. The setting for the poem is certainly far from Glasgow – Africa.

The 8 Mark Question

Marking Scheme

• Mention the specific area of commonality and include what poem(s) you will be discussing. (2 marks)

• Make a specific reference to the poem in front of you (quote) and link to the question – mention techniques and effect. (2 marks)

• Make a reference to another poem and link to the question – again, mention techniques and their effect. (2 marks)

• Make a reference to the other poem again and link to the question – again, mention techniques and their effect. (2 marks)

Exemplar 8 Mark Question

‘In the Snack Bar’ explores important social issues. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways this poem is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan you have studied. You may refer to ideas and/or language in your answer.

Step 1: Mention the specific area of commonality and include what poem(s) you will be discussing. (2 marks)

• ‘In the Snack Bar’ and ‘Good Friday’ by Edwin Morgan are both poems which explore the lack of concern society has for those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged.

• ‘In the Snack Bar’ follows a severely disabled man in his attempt to navigate a Glaswegian snack bar, ignored by most around him.

• ‘Good Friday’ shows the lack of assurance even the narrator can give a man as he drunkenly asks about the nature of religion during Easter.

Step 2: Make a specific reference to the poem in front of you (quote) and link to the question – mention techniques and effect. (2 marks)

• In ‘In the Snack Bar’ Morgan portrays the infirm man who is mostly ignored by those around him. Only “a few heads turn” when the man knocks over a cup in his efforts to stand up.

• Here, Morgan’s use of the contrast of the word “few” in the “crowded” snack bar emphasise the lack of notice or care the patrons have for the man, even in his “long blind, hunchback born, half-paralysed” state, as Morgan draws our attention to with his list of the man’s ailments later in the poem, clearly indicating how vulnerable and weak this man is.

Step 3: Make a reference to another poem and link to the question – again, mention techniques and their effect. (2 marks)

• In ‘Good Friday’, the man who “flops” down beside our narrator is also vulnerable, in the sense that he is drunk during the day (“3pm”) and is self-conscious over his lack of education (“he’s jist bliddy ignorant”).

• The repetition used in some of his questions, such as “ye understand – ye understand?” emphasise his need for understanding and acceptance from this stranger on a bus.

• Morgan also uses parenthesis here to break up this line, indicating the man’s broken language due to his drunken state, as well as inferring that the narrator, and others he may address, have not given him the reassurance that he needs.

Step 4: Make a reference to another poem and link to the question – again, mention techniques and their effect. (2 marks)

• Despite repeated questions from the man, such as “I’m no boring you, eh?”and “see what I mean?”, the narrator never appears to reply to him – unlike the narrator who actively helps the old man in ‘In the Snack Bar’.

• The constant questions highlight the man’s need for reassurance, but in providing no response, Morgan highlights how society is willing to ignore the desire for comfort and assurance some people need.

In the Snack-bar

A cup capsizes along the formica,

slithering with a dull clatter.

A few heads turn in the crowded evening snack-bar.

An old man is trying to get to his feet

from the low round stool fixed to the floor .

Slowly he levers himself up, his hands have no power.

He is up as far as he can get. The dismal hump

looming over him forces his head down.

He stands in his stained beltless gaberdine

like a monstrous animal caught in a tent

in some story. He sways slightly,

the face not seen, bent down

in shadow under his cap.

Even on his feet he is staring at the floor

or would be, if he could see.

I notice now his stick, once painted white

but scuffed and muddy, hanging from his right arm.

Long blind, hunchback born, half-paralysed

he stands

fumbling with the stick

and speaks:

‘I want- to go to the- toilet.’

It is down two flights of stairs, but we go.

I take his arm. "Give me- your arm- it's better," he says.

Inch by inch we drift towards the stairs.

A few yards of floor are like a landscape

to be negotiated, in the slow setting out

time has almost stopped. I concentrate

my life to his: crunch of spilt sugar,

slidy puddles from the night's umbrellas,

table edges, people’s feet,

hiss of the coffee machine, voices and laughter,

smell of a cigar, hamburgers, wet coats steaming,

and the slow dangerous inches to the stairs.

I put his right hand on the rail

and take his stick. He clings to me. The stick

is in his left hand, probing the treads.

I guide his arms and tell him the steps.

And slowly we go down. And slowly we go down.

White tiles and mirrors at last. He shambles

uncouth into the clinical gleam.

I set him in position, stand behind him

and wait with his stick.

His brooding reflection darkens the mirror

But the trickle of his water is thin and slow,

an old man’s apology for living.

Painful ages to close his trousers and coat-

I do up the last buttons for him.

He asks doubtfully, "Can I - wash my hands?"

I fill the basin, clasp his soft fingers round the soap.

He washes feebly, patiently. There is no towel.

I press the pedal of the drier, draw his hands

gently into the roar of the hot air.

But he cannot rub them together,

drags out a handkerchief to finish.

He is glad to leave the contraption, and face the stairs.

He climbs, and steadily enough.

He climbs, we climb. He climbs

with many pauses but with that one

persisting patience of the undefeated

which is the nature of man when all is said.

And slowly we go up. And slowly we go up.

The faltering, unfaltering steps

take him at last to the door

across that endless yet not endless waste of floor.

I watch him helped on a bus. It shudders off in the rain.

The conductor bends to hear where he wants to go.

Wherever he could go it would be dark

and yet he must trust men.

Without embarrassment or shame

he must announce his most pitiful needs

in a public place. No-one sees his face.

Does he know how frightening he is in his strangeness

under his mountainous coat, his hands like wet leaves

stuck to the half-white stick?

His life depends on many who would evade him.

But he cannot reckon up the chances,

having one thing to do,

to haul his blind hump through the rains of August.

Dear Christ, to be born for this.

Practice Papers

A.

1. Identify two of the poem’s main themes. 2

2. Show how any two examples of the poet’s language highlight the main themes. 4

3. Show how the writer’s use of both imagery and word choice conveys the old man’s difficulties. 4

4. What is the tone of the final stanza? How does the writer make this apparent? 2

5. By referring closely to this text and at least one other poem by Morgan, show how he uses language effectively to create characters with whom we sympathise. 8

B.

1. Show how two examples of the poet’s use of language in stanza one help to create a picture of the old man. 4

2. Show how two examples of the poet’s use of language in stanza two help to convey the nature of the journey to the toilet. 4

3. The message of the poem comes across clearly in the second stanza. Show how one example of the poet’s language in this stanza helps to clarify this message. 2

4. The narrator’s response to the old man comes across clearly in the third stanza. Show how one example of the poet’s language in this stanza helps to clarify this response. 2

5. With close textual reference, show how the ideas and/ or language of this poem are similar to another poem or poems by Morgan that you have read. 8

Trio

Coming up Buchanan Street, quickly, on a sharp winter evening

a young man and two girls, under the Christmas lights -

The young man carries a new guitar in his arms,

the girl on the inside carries a very young baby,

and the girl on the outside carries a chihuahua.

And the three of them are laughing, their breath rises

in a cloud of happiness, and as they pass

the boy says, "Wait till he sees this but!"

The chihuahua has a tiny Royal Stewart tartan coat like a teapot-

holder,

the baby in its white shawl is all bright eyes and mouth like

favours in a fresh sweet cake,

the guitar swells out under its milky plastic cover, tied at the neck

with silver tinsel tape and a brisk sprig of mistletoe.

Orphean sprig! Melting baby! Warm chihuahua!

The vale of tears is powerless before you.

Whether Christ is born, or is not born, you

put paid to fate, it abdicates

under the Christmas lights.

Monsters of the year

go blank, are scattered back,

can't bear this march of three.

And the three have passed, vanished in the crowd

(yet not vanished, for in their arms they wind

the life of men and beasts, and music,

laughter ringing them round like a guard)

at the end of this winter's day.

Questions

1. In lines 6 and 7, an atmosphere of happiness is created. How is this continued in lines 8–10? 4

2. What are the themes of this poem as expressed in lines 16–19? 2

3. How does Morgan emphasise these themes throughout the poem? 4

Hyena

I am waiting for you.

I have been travelling all morning through the bush

And not eaten.

I am lying at the edge of the bush

On a dusty path that leads from the burnt-out kraal.

I am panting, it is midday, I found no water-hole.

I am very fierce without food and although my eyes

Are screwed to slits against the sun

You must believe I am prepared to spring.

What do you think of me?

I have a rough coat like Africa.

I am crafty with dark spots

Like the bush-tufted plains of Africa.

I sprawl as a shaggy bundle of gathered energy

Like Africa sprawling in its waters.

I trot, I lope, I slaver, I am a ranger.

I hunch my shoulders. I eat the dead.

Do you like my song?

When the moon pours hard and cold on the veldt

I sing, and I am the slave of darkness.

Over the stone walls and the mud walls and the ruined places

And the owls, the moonlight falls.

I sniff a broken drum. I bristle. My pelt is silver.

I howl my song to the moon- up it goes.

Would you meet me there in the waste places?

It is said I am a good match

For a dead lion. I put my muzzle

At his golden flanks, and tear. He

Is my golden supper, but my tastes are easy.

I have a crowd of fangs, and I use them.

Oh and my tongue- do you like me

When it comes lolling out over my jaw

Very long, and I am laughing?

I am not laughing.

But I am not snarling either, only

Panting in the sun, showing you

What I grip

Carrion with.

I am waiting

For the foot to slide,

For the heart to seize,

For the leaping sinews to go slack,

For the fight to the death to be fought to the death,

For a glazing eye and a rumour of blood.

I am crouching in my dry shadows

Till you are ready for me.

My place is to pick you clean

And leave your bones to the wind.

Questions

1. What unexpected facts are we made aware of in lines 1–9?

2. Stanza 2 in lines 10–17 sees the hyena compared to many things. Identify them and the effects of each comparison.

3. Stanza 3 in lines 18–25 begins unusually. In what way(s)?

4. The last line in this section is sinister. Explain why.

5. In stanza 4 in lines 19–38 the character exploration continues. There are clearly two sides to the hyena. Describe them.

6. Stanza 5 in lines 39–48 gives the impression that the attention of the hyena is now focused on the reader. How does Morgan achieve this effect?

Practice Paper

1. Show how any two of the poet’s techniques in stanzas one and two convey the hyena’s beliefs about himself. 4

2. Show how any two of the poet’s techniques in stanzas one and two convey the hyena’s opinions of humanity. 4

3. How effective do you find any two aspects of the final stanza as a conclusion to the poem? Your answer may deal with ideas and/ or language. 4

4. With close textual reference, show how the ideas and/ or language of this poem are similar to another poem or poems by Morgan that you have read. 8

Good Friday

Three o’clock. The bus lurches

round into the sun. “D’s this go –”

he flops beside me – “right along Bath Street?

-Oh tha’s, tha’s all right, see I’ve

got to get some Easter eggs for the kiddies.

I’ve had a wee drink, ye understand –

ye’ll maybe think it’s a – funny day

to be celebrating – well, no, but ye see

I wasny working, and I like to celebrate

when I’m no working – I don’t say it’s right

I’m no saying it’s right – ye understand – ye understand?

but anyway tha’s the way I look at it –

I’m no boring you, eh? – ye see today,

take today, I don’t know what today’s in aid of,

whether Christ was – crucified or was he –

rose fae the dead like, see what I mean?

You’re an educatit man, you can tell me –

-Aye, well. There you are. It’s been seen

time and again, the working man has nae education, he jist canny – jist

hasny got it, know what I mean,

he’s jist bliddy ignorant – Christ aye,

bliddy ignorant. Well –” The bus brakes violently,

he lunges for the stair, swings down – off,

into the sun for his Easter eggs,

on very

nearly

steady

legs.

Practise Paper

1. The author uses many dashes in this piece. Explain the reason for this. 2

2. Comment on the final sentence ‘on very nearly steady legs’. 2

3. Why does Morgan use repeated phrases throughout this poem? 2

4. This poem recounts a chance encounter with a stranger. Choose at least one other poem by Morgan in which he describes a chance encounter and explain how it is similar or different to this poem. 8

Winter

The year goes, the woods decay, and after,

many a summer dies. The swan

on Bingham’s pond, a ghost, comes and goes.

It goes, and ice appears, it holds,

bear gulls that stand around surprised,

blinking in the heavy light, bears boys

when skates take over, the swan-white ice

glints only crystal beyond white. Even

dearest blue’s not there, though poets would find it.

I find one stark scene

cut by evening cries, by warring air.

The muffled hiss of blades escapes into breath,

hangs with it a moment, fades off.

Fades off, goes, the scene, the voices fade,

the line of trees, the woods that fall, decay

and break, the dark comes down, the shouts

run off into it and disappear.

At last the lamps go too, when fog

drives monstrous down the duel carriageway

out to the west, and even in my room

and on paper I do not know

about that grey dead pane

of ice that sees nothing and that nothing sees.

Questions

1. Explain the metaphor of the swan being a ghost in lines 2–3.

2. In line 10, Morgan writes that ‘blue’s not there,’ – meaning the blue of the water – and then adds that ‘poets would find it’. What do you think this means?

3. What technique is being used in the expression ‘warring air’? What effect does it create? How effective is it?

4. In lines 19–20, Morgan uses a technique to describe the fog. Name the technique and describe its effects.

Practice Paper

1. Show how any two of the poet’s uses of word choice effectively contribute to the main ideas or concerns of the poem. 4

2. Show how any two of the poet’s uses of sound effect techniques effectively contribute to the main ideas or concerns of the poem. 4

3. How effective do you find any two aspects of the last six lines as a conclusion to the poem? Your answer may deal with ideas and/ or language. 4

4. With close textual reference, show how the ideas and/ or language of this poem are similar to another poem or poems by Morgan that you have read. 8

Slate

There is no beginning. We saw Lewis

laid down, when there was not much but thunder

and volcanic fires; watched long seas plunder

faults; laughed as Staffa cooled. Drumlins blue as

bruises were grafted off like nutmegs; bens,

and a great glen, gave a rough back we like

to think the ages must streak, surely strike,

seldom stroke, but raised and shaken, with tens

of thousands of rains, blizzards, sea-poundings

shouldered off into night and memory.

Memory of men! That was to come. Great

In their empty hunger these surroundings

Threw walls to the sky, the sorry glory

Of a rainbow. Their heels kicked flint, chalk, slate.

Practice Paper

1. Show how any two of the poet’s uses of word choice effectively contribute to the main ideas or concerns of the poem. 4

2. Show how any two of the poet’s uses of sound effect techniques effectively contribute to the main ideas or concerns of the poem. 4

3. How effective do you find any two aspects of the last four lines as a conclusion to the poem? Your answer may deal with ideas and/ or language. 4

4. With close textual reference, show how the ideas and/ or language of this poem are similar to another poem or poems by Morgan that you have read. 8

Example 8 Mark Questions

Using the formula, answer these example 8 mark questions under exam conditions.

1. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways ‘In the Snack Bar’ is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan you have studied. You may refer to ideas (themes) and/or language (structure) in your answer.

2. ‘Trio’ is a poem which deals with the nature of festivities. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways this poem is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan you have studied. You may refer to ideas and/or language in your answer.

3. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways ‘Winter’ is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan you have studied. You may refer to ideas and/or language in your answer.

4. ‘In the Snack Bar’ deals with important social issues, such as a lack of concern for the vulnerable in our society. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways this poem is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan.

5. With close textual reference, discuss in what ways ‘Good Friday’ is similar to another poem or poems by Morgan you have studied. You may refer to ideas and/or language in your answer.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download