1. Edwin Morgan – Good Friday
Describes a real life encounter.
“I think of poetry partly as...a way of recording moments and events...I am very strongly moved by the absolute force of what actually happens.”
Morgan
Poet takes factual events and finds the romance and poetry in them.

2. Basic Details
1. Where exactly does this encounter happen? 2. When does it happen? 3. What happens? 4. Who is involved in this encounter?

3. Task
Draw two stick men in your jotter. Label them the narrator and the working man.
Around your two sketches, write down everything you know already about each character

4. Realism where: top deck of a bus, Bath Street, Glasgow
Opening: full of real life detail
where: top deck of a bus, Bath Street, Glasgow
when: 3 o'clock, Good Friday afternoon
weather: sunny
‘working man’ – not described in detail
only revealed through what he says
Poet’s persona - not introduced either
Present only as listener
Revealed through what the ‘working man’ says to him

5. Realism Use of present tense creates realism or ‘immediacy’
Immediacy = a sense that the whole thing is unfolding in front of us as we look on.

6. The narrator
Task 1. Identify which parts of the poem come from the narrator's voice 2. Identify which parts of the poem come from the working man's voice

7. The narrator's language
“Three o'clock. The bus lurches
round into the sun...
he flops beside me”
“The bus brakes violently,
he lunges for the stair, swings down – off,
into the sun for his Easter eggs
on very
nearly
steady
legs”
Everything else in the poem is a monologue by the working man
Reference to Easter eggs
Echoes the start of the
Poem and reminds us of the
Man's task

8. The narrator's language
Annotation task:
Verbs such as “lurches”, “flops”, “brakes (violently)”, “lunges”, “swings” tell us about active and expressive movement
Brings the scene to life
Makes us feel we can see it happening

9. The narrator's language
“eggs” and “legs” → rhyme
- one of few rhymes in the poem and only rhyming couplet
Why do you think Morgan saved this technique until the very end? How does it help give the poem an effective ending?

10. The narrator's language
“on very
nearly
steady
legs”
Humorous?
Layout mirrors events (like steps on bus) [concrete poetry]
Rhyming couplet (“eggs” and “legs” → rhyme) – revisits subject of poem – meaning of Easter and drunk ‘working man’
Undermines his own words: “very nearly” contradicts idea that working man's legs are “steady”

11. The working man's language
Contrasts with the narrator's short, but poetic, speech
His language is shown to use by being passed through the filter of the poet
Task
Look at line 6. What do we learn? Why would the working man not need to say this to the narrator?

12. The working man's language
Task
word choice
repetition
Circle every use of:
see understand say/saying mean
The repeated use of words suggests:
man really wants to be taken seriously
he's trying hard to communicate
he wants to be understood and accepted
he doesn't want to be judged

13. The working man's language
Line 5. ‘Got some Easter eggs’ = kindness
Line 10. ‘I don’t say it’s right’ -- does not want us to judge or condemn his drinking?
Line 11 ‘ye understand – ye understand’ -- he wants to be understood
Line 13 ‘’I’m no boring you, eh?’ -- need to be accepted?
Whole monologue - dashes suggest the man runs ideas together – conveys speed with which he talks

14. The working man's language
Sees the narrator as “an educatit man”
Aware of differences in social class and education →
describes himself as “bliddy ignorant”
admits to not understanding the Easter story, (thinks the narrator will be able to explain)
Dialect suggests working man may not have formal education:
Line 20: “He jist canny – jist hasny” → loses his train of thought
- “was he – rose fae the dead like” → poor grammar
Repetition of verbs like “see...ye understand...ye'll maybe think...ye see...see what I mean...you can tell me...know what I mean” → show how much the man wants the narrator to listen to him and to understand him.

15. Interaction Line 18 “- Aye, well. There ye are”
suggests the narrator gave an answer that the man thought was deep or clever
implies the answer was about the meaning of Easter

16. Christian ideas in the poem
Title of poem refers to Good Friday, the day on which Jesus was crucified
- the idea of Easter is picked up in the working man's mention of going to buy Easter eggs and by his questions about the meaning of Easter in the second half of the poem

17. Christian ideas in the poem
“Three o'clock. The bus lurches
round into the sun”
- parallel with Matthew's story of Jesus' death: “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice (...and) gave up his spirit.”
- the “ninth hour” means about 3 in the afternoon → Morgan has the bus come out into the sun at the exact same time as the Bible story has the darkness ending and Jesus dying.
- it is a significant time as it stands for the end of darkness and Jesus' suffering

18. Christian ideas in the poem
Task 1. What does the working man think about the Easter story? 2. What does he think about Easter as a time of year? How does he celebrate it? 3. The working man says “Christ” twice. Explain the two different ways in which he uses the word.

19. Christian ideas in the poem
Gives us two different pictures of Easter → the one believed by Christians and the one expressed by the man, who seems to have more questions than answers.

20. What is Morgan saying about Easter?
Perhaps that Easter means different things to different people – the man's celebratory drink and buying of eggs for his children is just as valid as any other way or marking it.
Perhaps that the church hasn't done a very good job of explaining things, if the man doesn't know “what today's in aid of”
Perhaps that the church isn't good at teaching ordinary working people. The man in the poem says he's “bliddy ignorant” about Easter. However, Morgan knows the story in enough detail to be able to refer in his opening lines to the detail about the darkness and the third hour.

21. Morgan's message
It does seem that Morgan is questioning how much Christian beliefs and rituals are relevant in modern life.
However, he also shows that we still need something to celebrate → the working man celebrates by having a drink on his day off work
→ the poem also celebrates spring by mentioning the sun twice (at the start and end of the poem)
Idea that the working man is 'crucified' by drink but at the end of the poem he has his own 'resurrection' back out into the sunshine?

22. Revision
Complete your grids, identifying at least the following techniques:
Active, expressive verbs
Rhyme
Line layout (structure)
Undermining word choice
Repetition
Characterisation
Accent
Biblical references