1. In the Snack Bar
Edwin Morgan

2. Think about GLASGOW Some good things Some bad things
about Glasgow: about Glasgow:
Commonwealth Neds
Games Knife crime
Shopping! Buckfast
Nice bars and Sectarianism
Restaurants
Top universities. m

3. What are your experiences of people with disabilities?
List 5 disabilities someone could have:
I.e. Physically disables (in a wheelchair),
Deaf,
etc…
Discuss in your pairs if you know someone or have witnessed someone with a disability.
-What did you think? - What did you feel? –Did you do anything?

4. In the snack bar
This poem is about a disabled man, in a diner, who needs to rely on the help of those around him in order to do simple things like get to the toilet.
In pairs find a small area of space in the classroom and number yourselves 1 & 2.
1- cover your eyes.
2- Spin your partner.
1- try to find your partner without looking!
How difficult was this process?

5. Quote every detail about the mans disability in stanza 1-
“his hands have no power”
“The dismal hump looming over him forces his head down.”
“he is staring at the floor or would be, if he could see”
“I notice now his stick, once painted white”
“Long blind, hunchback born, half-paralysed”
What can we infer about the man based on these quotations?

6. Simile
A simile is a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another using like or as.
This gives a more vivid picture because of the similarity between the two things compared.
For example:
‘We go together like Chinese food and chocolate pudding.’ Will Ferrell.
‘That rock on your finger is like a tumour.’
Beyonce and Jay Z
‘Life is like a pipe and I’m a tiny penny, rolling up the walls inside.’
Amy Winehouse.

7. Similes
“He stands in his stained beltless gabardine like a monstrous animal caught in a tent in some story.”
What does this comparison tell us about the man?

8. What does the simile suggest?
This suggests the size of the man, and shows how badly deformed he is as his disability has made him seem animal rather than human.
Comparing his gaberdine coat to a tent shows that it seems ill-fitting and looks wrong on him.

9. Another example…
Later in the poem, still describing the old man, Morgan notes his:
‘hands like wet leaves’

10. Now try this…
What image does this suggest in your mind about the man’s hands?
Write your own sentence(s) starting with these words:
The simile ‘hands like wet leaves’ suggests….

11. Now try this…
There is another simile near the start of the second verse.
Find it, and write your own explanation of it as before.
The simile ‘A few yards of floor are like a landscape to be negotiated…’ suggests….

12. Metaphor A metaphor is when a poet says something IS something else.
i.e. The girls eyes were diamonds.
The teacher was a dragon.
The room was a pig sty.
There are NO metaphors in this particular poem

13. Personification
In this figure of speech, an inanimate, non-living, object is written about as if it was a person or a living creature. For example:
The wind whistled through the sails.
The sun treads a path through the woods.

14. Now try this… ‘The dismal hump looming over him forces his head down.’
Can the hump on his back be pushing and forcing him? Of course not — it is not a living creature.
So what is Morgan suggesting by making the lump ‘seem’ alive?
Morgan is suggesting the hump seems alive because it looks as though it has deliberately pushed the man out of shape.

15. B) Figures of speech which involve SOUND 1. Onomatopoeia 2
B) Figures of speech which involve SOUND 1. Onomatopoeia 2. Alliteration

16. Onomatopoeia

17. Onomatopoeia
When a word sounds like what it is describing, we call this onomatopoeia.
Words like thud, bang, splash, yawn and howl are all examples of this technique.
Most onomatopoeic words are to do with either sound or movement.
Onomatopoeia is used to make the writing sound more vivid.

18. Now try this… An example of onomatopoeia in the poem is:
‘slithering with a dull clatter’
Look at the quotation above.
Which is the onomatopoeic word?
In what way does that word’s sound suggest its meaning?
Write your own sentence(s) starting:
‘The word (quote it) suggests…’

19. Alliteration

20. Alliteration
When letters or sounds are repeated at the beginnings of words we call this alliteration
For example:
Steve seldom smiled on Sundays.
Silently the spider spun its silken strands.
Alliteration makes you notice the words more and draws your attention to what the writer is saying.

21. Now try this Look at the line below from the poem.
A cup capsizes along the formica
What effect does the alliteration in this line have?
Why do you think the writer began his poem this way?

22. C) WORD CHOICE

23. Word Choice
Of course all words that a writer uses are chosen in some way.
But when we talk about word choice as a technique we mean that certain words are very carefully and deliberately chosen to obtain particular effects.

24. Now try this….
Answer the following questions about some of the word choice in the poem.
1 What can we tell about the snack bar from the fact that the old man’s stool is ‘fixed to the floor’? (Line 5)
2 What effect is created by the writer’s use of ‘dismal’ in line 7?
3 What effect is created by the writer’s description of the man’s gaberdine coat as ‘stained, beltless’ in line 9?
4 What effect is created by the writer’s use of the word ‘fumbling’ in line 20?
5 Why does the writer use the word ‘contraption’ to describe the hand drier in line 56?

25. Repetition

26. Repetition
Repetition is another structural technique: when a writer deliberately uses a word or phrase more often than you would normally expect.
One example of repetition in this poem is:
‘And slowly we go down. And slowly we go down.’

27. What effect does this have…?
This also slows down the reader, making us pay more attention to the repeated words.
What does this example of repetition suggest?
Here, the repetition suggests the difficulty of the journey down the stairs.

28. Now try this… Read lines 57 to 65 of the snack bar poem.
Find two more examples of repetition.
In each case, quote them, and explain what effect Morgan gets by using that technique here.

29. E) Contrast

30. Contrast A contrast is a form of opposite.
Whenever you get a question about contrast, to get full marks you need to look at both sides.
It’s not a contrast to say:
Jane is short and middle aged
but it is a contrast if you say:
While Jane is short and middle aged, Kenny is tall and young.

31. Now try this…
Read lines 63 to 65 of the poem. The writer twice uses contrasting, opposite pairs of words.
• How can the old man’s steps be at once ‘faltering’ and ‘unfaltering’?
• How can their journey across the floor be at once ‘endless’ and ‘not endless’?
• What overall effect does Morgan create by using contrasts in this way?

32. F) Attitude

33. Attitude
Our attitude is how we feel about something, our opinion of it or reaction to it.
A writer’s attitude is often shown through other techniques, and you may need to read quite a large chunk of text before you can work out what the attitude is.

34. Now try this…
Re-read the poem. Then write a mini essay to explain the writer’s attitude to the man he helps. Use the opening below to help you, and back up the attitude identified with quotations from the poem.
The writer’s attitude towards the older man is that he feels sorry for him, yet in a way also admires him…

35. G) Endings

36. Endings
You will often be asked why the ending of a text is suitable. This might involve looking at the last line(s) of a poem, or the last sentence or paragraph of a prose text. Endings can be suitable in a number of ways. For example:
• the ending may sum up what the writer has been saying
• the ending may emphasis a point made in the text
• the ending may be humorous
• the ending may give the reader something to think about
• the ending may refer neatly back to something found earlier in the text.

37. Now try this…
We are going to look at the ending of the poem in two ways.
1 Read the whole of the last verse. In what ways is this a suitable ending to the poem? You answer should be a paragraph and you should use some quotations from that verse to justify what you say.
2 Focus on the final line. In what way is this a suitable ending to the poem?