Transcript Document

“GLASGOW 5 MARCH 1971”
By Edwin Morgan
With a ragged diamond
of shattered plate-glass
a young man and his girl
are falling backwards into a shop-window.
5 The young man’s face
is bristling with fragments of glass
and the girl’s leg has caught
on the broken window
and spurts arterial blood
10
over her wet-look white coat.
Their arms are starfished out
braced for impact.
Their faces show surprise, shock,
and the beginning of pain.
15
The two youths who have pushed them
are about to complete the operation
reaching into the window
to loot what they can smartly.
Their faces show no expression.
20
It is a sharp clear night
in Sauchiehall Street.
In the background two drivers
keep their eyes on the road.
THE BIG PICTURE
This poem is one of the texts that you will be able to choose to write
about in the Critical Essay part of the exam.
Over the next few weeks, we will be studying the poem in great detail in
order to ensure that you have a very solid knowledge and
understanding of it.
We will be undertaking a number of textual analysis activities as well as
developing our critical essay writing skills.
You will be able to demonstrate that you:
• Understand the poem, its ideas and main themes.
• Are able to analyse the different techniques used by the
author in order to convey the ideas and themes.
• Are able to evaluate how effective the author has been by
using these techniques in order to convey the ideas and
themes.
The main literary and language techniques that we
will be working on are:
• Tone.
• Word choice.
• Imagery.
• Onomatopoeia.
• Emotive language.
• Theme.
WE ARE LEARNING...
To be able to understand the features of an
Instamatic poem.
WHY IS THE POEM “INSTAMATIC”?
Edwin Morgan is the narrator/speaker of the poem and, one evening in
March 1971, he witnesses a young couple being attacked in
Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow.
In the poem, he describes everything that he saw within the few
seconds of the attack.
His poem is like a photograph made from words. He freezes a dramatic
moment in time and he gives us a detailed snapshot of what he saw.
WE ARE LEARNING...
•To be able to understand the tone of the poem.
•To be able to write a summary of the poem.
WHAT IS TONE?
Tone is concerned with the attitude of the writer.
If you could hear the writer saying the words he/she has
written, what would his/her tone of voice be?
Tone can help us work out what the writer thinks and feels
about what he/she is writing about.
TASK
How would you describe the tone of
the poem?
The tone of the poem is very serious, formal
and unemotional.
It sounds like a police report or a witness
statement.
TASK
Write a short summary of what happens in the
poem. You should write no more than 50
words.
What happened?
Who was involved?
Where did the incident take place?
Why did the incident happen?
When did the incident take place?
WE ARE LEARNING...
•To be able to analyse and evaluate how Morgan
makes the opening very dramatic.
•To able to analyse and evaluate word choice.
The first four lines of the poem immediately grab our attention
and pull us into the moment:
“With a ragged diamond
of shattered plate glass
a young man and his girl
are falling backwards into a shop window.”
Morgan uses word choice very effectively in order to make the
beginning of the poem dramatic.
WRITING ABOUT WORD CHOICE
All words have very particular meanings and
effects.
Writers do not choose words by accident- they
choose words because of their effect and
meaning.
You must be aware of the difference between
the denotation and the connotation of a word.
• Denotation= the dictionary definition of a
word.
• Connotation= all the secondary meanings
associated with a word.
For example,
The Denotation of the word “home”= the place
where someone lives, eats and sleeps.
The Connotations of the word “home”= a place
of warmth, comfort, safety and security.
When writing about the author’s use of word choice,
you must always
Quote + Comment
Quote
Provide an example of word choice.
Comment
1. State the connotations of the word.
2. Explain why the word is effective and
how it conveys the author’s ideas.
BACK TO THE POEM...
“With a ragged diamond
of shattered plate glass
a young man and his girl
are falling backwards into a shop window.”
We are analysing and evaluating how Morgan uses
word choice to make the first four lines of the poem
dramatic and attention grabbing.
The broken glass from the shop window is
described as being “ragged” and “shattered”.
How do these examples of word choice make
the scene dramatic?
EXAMPLE ANSWER
Quote
“shattered”
Comment
1. This has connotations of broken and destruction.
2. This emphasises that the young couple were pushed into
the shop window with so much force, violence and power
that the window was completely destroyed due to the
impact of their bodies. We can imagine how painful and
terrifying it must have been to be thrown into such a
potentially dangerous and lethal piece of glass.
The victims of the attack are described as being “a
young man and his girl” and the author refers to the
word “diamond”.
1. What do these examples of word choice suggest
about the victims and their reason for being in
Sauchiehall Street?
2. Think about your answer to question 1. Explain how
this makes the opening dramatic.
“young”
This has connotations of vulnerable, fragile, purity, healthy,
innocent, fun, freedom.
“diamond”
This has connotations of marriage, love, engagement, passion,
romance, commitment.
This is effective because Morgan is emphasising the fact that
the two victims are innocent and vulnerable due to their
youth. They are clearly in love, possibly on a date, and are
looking at engagement rings as they want to show their
commitment towards each other. All of a sudden, they are
viciously assaulted in an unprovoked attack which results in
potentially fatal injuries. Their thoughts of romance and
passion immediately turn to thoughts of horror and agony.
The author turns around and sees the two victims
“falling backwards into a shop window”.
How does this make the scene dramatic?
TASK
Choose two examples of word choice
from lines 1-4 and write a detailed
paragraph explaining how they help
to create a dramatic opening to the
poem.
TASK
Write a P.Q.E paragraph which explains how Morgan uses
Word Choice to make the first four lines of the poem very
dramatic.
Your topic sentence has been written for you. Copy this down
and then complete the paragraph.
“Through his effective use of interesting word choice, Morgan is able to create a
dramatic and attention grabbing opening to the poem.”
WE ARE LEARNING...
•To be able to analyse and evaluate how Morgan
makes the attack on the young couple seem
violent.
•To able to analyse and evaluate imagery.
In lines 5-14 of the poem, Morgan describes the attack on the
couple in vivid detail in order to emphasise how violent it was:
The young man’s face
is bristling with fragments of glass
and the girl’s leg has caught
on the broken window
and spurts arterial blood
over her wet-look white coat.
Their arms are starfished out
braced for impact.
Their faces show surprise, shock,
and the beginning of pain.
One of the ways in which he
achieves this is through his
effective use of imagery.
WHAT IS IMAGERY?
How an author “paints a picture” in our
minds.
It is created when an author uses
• Metaphor.
• Simile.
• Personification.
THE FIVE SENSES
Imagery is not just what we can see. It can also
refer to the other senses!
Sight
Taste
Sound
Touch
Smell
WHAT IS A SIMILE?
Where the author compares two different things by
using the words “like” or “as”.
• The car was as fast as a bullet.
• My love is like a red red rose.
WHAT IS A METAPHOR?


A metaphor compares two different things without
using the words “like” or “as”.
A metaphor works by saying that one thing is
something completely different.
• Simile= Her hair was like golden silk.
• Metaphor= Her hair was golden silk.
OTHER EXAMPLES
• The moon is a balloon in the sky.
• The man’s office is a tip.
• The lake was a mirror.
WHAT IS PERSONIFICATION?
Where an author gives a non-human thing the
characteristics or attributes or emotions of a human
being.
• The storm was cruel and angry.
• The wind whispered in my ear.
HOW DO I WRITE ABOUT
IMAGERY?
You must always use the three-stepmethod.
EXAMPLE
As I drove past Loch Lomond the surface
was a mirror.
STEP 1
• Quote the example of imagery; and
• State which technique has been used(i.e. Metaphor? Simile?
Personification?)
“the surface was a mirror” is a metaphor.
STEP 2
Think about what is being described (x) and
what it is being compared to (y).
The surface of the loch (x) is being compared to
a mirror (y).
STEP 3
• Explain the relevant connotations of y (Just as...)
• Then explain how these connotations are transferred on to x
(So too...)
Just as a mirror is very shiny and clear (y), so too
was the surface of the loch very bright and you
could see your reflection in it (x).
3-STEP-METHOD!
“the surface was a mirror” is a metaphor.
The surface of the loch (x) is being compared to a
mirror (y).
Just as a mirror is very shiny and clear (y), so too was
the surface of the loch very bright and you could
see your reflection in it (x).
BACK TO THE POEM...
“The young man’s face
is bristling with fragments of glass”
1. Use the three-step-method to analyse how this
quote makes the attack on the young couple seem
violent.
2. Explain why this metaphor is so effective.
1. “bristling with fragments of glass” is a metaphor.
The author is comparing the glass on the man’s face to a
beard.
Just as a beard is rough and spiky and made up of thousands
of hair, so too were thousands of shards of glass sharp and
jaggy and covering the man’s face.
2. This effectively conveys how violent the attack was as we
can imagine how much agony the young man must have
experienced as the razor-sharp glass tore at his skin and
embedded themselves all over his face. We can also assume
that the glass from the window would have torn his face
severely, resulting in torrents of blood, and that the man
would have been terribly scarred for the rest of his life due to
the attack. He would have been reminded of the terrifying
attack every time that he looked in the mirror.
“the girl’s leg...spurts arterial blood”
Which technique is being used
here?
Another way in which Morgan makes the
attack on the young couple seem very violent
is through his use of onomatopoeia when he
tells us that the young woman has a wound in
her leg which “spurts” blood over her clothes.
WHAT IS ONOMATOPOEIA?
This is where an author uses a word that imitates the sound that
he/she is describing. For example:
•Hiss! is a word that imitates the sound of a snake.
•Crunch! is a word that imitates the sound of a person eating crisps.
•Splash! is a word that imitates the sound of a person jumping into a
swimming pool.
“the girl’s leg...spurts arterial blood”
How does the onomatopoeia in this quote
make the attack seem very violent?
(Use the quote plus comment method for
writing about word choice).
“spurts” (onomatopoeia)
This has connotations of gushing, spraying, splashing,
pouring, speed, fast, uncontrollable…
This effectively conveys the violence of the attack
because the onomatopoeia means that the reader
can almost hear the sound of the blood pouring out of
the girl’s leg at great speed. It also conveys the fact
that the blood is uncontrollably gushing out of her
body due to the severe wound in her leg and that the
injury is possibly life-threatening. We can imagine how
terrified and in agony the girl must have been as her
blood sprayed everywhere and drenched her clothes
and her life was draining away.
Another technique that Morgan uses in the poem is
called “emotive language”.
Emotive language is where an author uses a
particular word or phrase in order to provoke an
emotional reaction in the reader.
“the girl’s leg...spurts arterial blood”
The word “blood” is emotive language as the reader
feels emotions such as disgust, fear and concern
when we see this word.
We know that the woman is severely injured and that
she might die if she does not receive medical
attention soon.
“Their arms are star-fished out
braced for impact”.
1. What does the word “star-fished” tell us about the
manner in which the couple fell into the shop
window?
2. How do these lines emphasise the violence of the
attack?
“Their faces show surprise, shock,
and the beginning of pain”
1. Write down two examples of emotive language from this
quote.
2. Explain how one example makes the reader feel sympathy
for the young couple as they are being violently attacked.
Use the quote plus comment method.
“pain”
This has connotations of unbearable,
discomfort, agony, suffering, hurt, injured.
This is effective because the young couple must
have been in unbearable discomfort and
agony due to being violently pushed through
the window. We feel sympathy as they are
severely injured and would be greatly suffering
after this unprovoked assault. If they do not
receive help then it is likely that their injuries
would be fatal.
“shock”
This has connotations of alarm, disturbed, distress,
panic.
This is effective because we can imagine how
alarmed and disturbed the young couple would
have been as they were violently pushed
through the shop window. We feel sympathy
towards them as the experienced would have
caused great panic and distress in them. The
attack happened very suddenly without any
warning and resulted in horrific injuries and we
naturally feel sorry for the young couple.
TASK
Write a detailed paragraph which explains how Morgan `uses
different techniques to make the attack seem violent.
Choose two of the following quotes:
“The young man’s face
is bristling with fragments of glass”
“the girl’s leg...spurts arterial blood”
“Their arms are starfished out
braced for impact”.
“Their faces show surprise, shock,
and the beginning of pain”
Your topic sentence has been written for you. Copy this down
and then complete the paragraph:
Through his effective use of different techniques,
Morgan is able to vividly portray the violence
in the attack on the young couple.
This task should be finished for homework for
tomorrow if not completed in class.
WE ARE LEARNING...
To be able to analyse and evaluate how
Morgan uses Word Choice to emphasise
the cruelty of the gang of youths.
We will be focusing on the Word Choice in lines 15-19:
“The two youths who have pushed them
are about to complete the operation
reaching into the window
to loot what they can smartly.
Their faces show no expression”
“about to complete the operation
reaching into the window
to loot what they can smartly”
1.What does the word choice of “operation” tell us about the
attack and the criminals?
Use the quote plus comment method.
Make sure that you explain how effectively this quote
emphasises the cruelty of the gang of criminals.
“operation” (euphemism)
This has connotations of planning; planned; thoughtout; careful; precise; skilled; devised; mission;
preparation.
This emphasises the cruelty of the youths as they
have clearly planned the attack carefully and
prepared for it in advance. They are able to
predict the serious consequences of their violent
actions and the terrible injuries they will cause their
victims and yet they carry out the mission they
have carefully devised in a precise manner.
“operation” (euphemism)
This has connotations of planning; planned; thoughtout; careful; precise; skilled; devised; mission;
preparation.
“Their faces show no expression”
• What is the attitude of the youths about what they have
done?
• How effectively does this emphasise how cruel the gang of
criminals are?
“their faces show no expression”
This emphasises the cruelty of the two youths as they
show absolutely no emotion towards the horrific
injuries they have inflicted on their victims and how
much pain, distress and agony they must have been
in. The two criminals feel absolutely no regret or
remorse over their actions. They feel no sympathy or
concern for their victims, nor do they feel guilty about
the harm they have inflicted.
The fact that they show no emotion also suggests that
they have committed this type of attack before and
that they have become immune to any form of
feelings regarding the crime that they are
committing.
WE ARE LEARNING...
To be able to analyse and evaluate how Morgan uses
the poem to make a comment about society.
To be able to understand the main themes of the
poem.
We will be focusing on lines 20-23:
It is a sharp, clear night
in Sauchiehall Street.
In the background two drivers
keep their eyes on the road.
1. Why is it important that the attack happened on a
“clear night in Sauchiehall Street”? What point is
Morgan making about our society?
• Everyone would be able to see the attack
happening.
• It takes place on a very busy street and there
would have been lots of witnesses.
• Despite this, no-one steps in to intervene or
help.
• Morgan is suggesting that we live in a cruel
and selfish society and that most people lack
the courage or care enough to help others in
situations like this.
2. Morgan tells us that while the attack is taking place:
In the background two drivers
keep their eyes on the road.
a. Why does he tell us this? What is he suggesting
about the people in the cars?
b. Would you have reacted differently? Explain why.
• The people in the cars witness the attack but they
pretend that they don’t see it. If they don’t see it
then they don’t have to do anything to help (wilful
blindness).
• Morgan is suggesting that the people in the cars
are cowardly and selfish as they do nothing to help
the victims of the attack. Morgan is suggesting that
there is no such thing as a community because we
are too interested in helping ourselves. In Scotland
we are too narcissistic (self-obsessed): we do not
care about others.
• However, perhaps they do not intervene as they
are too scared. Morgan is suggesting that our
society is dangerous and that people are afraid to
put themselves at risk to help others.
THEME
Think about the poem as a whole.
What are the main themes that Morgan is trying
to convey in the poem?
Theme
= the main ideas that are found throughout the
text.
Main themes
• Crime and violence.
• Cruelty and selfishness.