‘Glasgow Sonnets (i)’

Edwin Morgan

Aims Today

• Complete annotation of poem

• Begin TA practice

Themes

• Poverty and the effect it has on the psyche of those who experience it.

• Depravation

• Hopelessness

• Isolation

Tone – the voice of the poet

• Despairing

• Sombre

• Bleak

Form• Petrarchan Sonnet• Originally created by the Italian, Francesco Petrarch (14th Century).• 14 lines• First 8 are known as the octet• Last 6 are known as the sestet• Octave presents a problem – a series of statements that make us

think about a certain truth.• Volta – beginning of the sestet – marks a change in tone.• Sestet – makes a comment on the problem.

• Why does Morgan use this form?• To create a stark contrast between a normally beautiful form,

normally associated with love, and what can be seen as extremely shocking content. This has the effect of forcefully emphasising the latter.

Rhyme and Meter

• ABBA• ABBA• CDCDCD• 10 syllables in each line (not regularly iambic

pentameter – 1 stressed + 1 unstressed syllable x 5)

What does the regular rhyme tell us about poverty?

It will never change. Those who experience it are stuck.

mean wind wanders through the backcourt trash.

Hackles on puddles rise, old mattresses

puff briefly and subside. Play-fortresses

of brick and bric-a-brac spill out some ash.

Four storeys have no windows left to smash,

but the fifth a chipped sill buttresses

mother and daughter the last mistresses

of that black block condemned to stand, not crash.

Around them the cracks deepen, the rats crawl.

The kettle whimpers on a crazy hob.

Roses of mould grow from ceiling to wall.

The man lies late since he has lost his job,

smokes on one elbow, letting his coughs fall

thinly into an air too poor to rob.

Textual Analysis

What you must remember

• Generally you always quote• Always make reference to techniques• Explain the effect of techniques in detail• Pay close attention to amount of marks on

offer• 4 marks generally require 2 well

developed main points. If time go for three to make sure.

• Write in bullet points or continuous prose.

Bullet point approach

• Technique as subtitle

• Quote underneath

• Explanation

Task

• Individually, have a go at the TA questions in the purple booklet.

• Normally this should take you 1 hour.