glasgow 5th march

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In the poem “Glasgow 5th March 1971” by Edwin Morgan the poet has created very vivid images by using metaphors and unusual word orders. To summarise what happens in the poem, a man and his girlfriend are pushed through a glass window of a shop in Glasgow by two youths looking to steal items from the shop. The poem is written in an impersonal way. The poet does not give his own opinions on the situation described, therefore the reader can draw their own conclusions. The title of the poem gives the effect of a newspaper headline which is also impersonal, leaving the pictures in the readers mind very chilling and sinister, although most of the images are created by metaphors. One of the metaphors used is the word ‘starfished’, creating the image of the couple’s arms and legs spread out in an attempt to protect themselves from falling. Another effective metaphor used is ‘ragged diamond’. This helps you to imagine the shattered glass on the ground glinting in the streetlights, because of all the sharp edges. Onomatopoeia is also used in the poem and is a very effective technique. The poet has used it a few times in the poem, helping the reader hear the poem as well as being able to see it. An example of this is the word ‘shattered’, giving the reader the ability to almost hear the glass of the shop window smashing into thousands of tiny pieces. The word ‘spurts’ is also a very good example of onomatopoeia used in the poem, as it also helps the reader to almost hear what is going on. The second image in the poem is the thieves. Their faces ‘show no expression’, this reveals to the reader that the thieves simply do not care about the crime they had just committed, or the people they have badly injured. At this point in the poem, the poet re-orders a line, ‘to loot what they can smartly’ at the word ‘smartly’ at the end of the line to draw our

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