In the Snack-Bar Help
“In the Snack-bar” by Edwin Morgan
If you are choosing to write about this poem in an exam situation, you are most likely going to be looking to answer a question which requires you to:
Write about a poem you found interesting/striking/challenging/enjoyable/thought-provoking.
Or
Write about a poem which makes you feel emotion/sympathy/admiration/ empathy/compassion for a character.
Or
Write about a poem which made you think in a different way about an issue/ reconsider your views on an issue.
Regardless of which particular type of question it is you answer, your job will be to analyse the techniques used by the poet to make you, as the reader, feel sympathy/change your views/enjoy the poem etc.
With that in mind, you should be looking to analyse the most prominent techniques used by Edwin Morgan, including:
• Imagery (figurative language such as simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia) • Repetition • Caesura • Narration • Theme/Message
This booklet will give a brief recap of how Morgan employs each of these techniques in the poem and possible reasons for doing so. When you are writing about these techniques in the exam, you will gain far more credit if you can back up what you are saying with quotes and references from the text.
Imagery
Imagery is simply the way in which the poet develops pictures in the reader’s mind through his use of descriptive and figurative (simile/metaphor) language.
Imagery plays a very important part in “In the Snack-Bar” when it comes to the poet making the reader feel sympathy for the old man. The poet’s use of imagery to make the reader feel sympathy is particularly effective when he is describing the old man’s appearance to the reader:
“Like a monstrous animal caught in a tent”
This is a powerful image as it dehumanises the man, making him appear more creature-like than human, and the word “caught” has connotations of the man being almost trapped
If you are choosing to write about this poem in an exam situation, you are most likely going to be looking to answer a question which requires you to:
Write about a poem you found interesting/striking/challenging/enjoyable/thought-provoking.
Or
Write about a poem which makes you feel emotion/sympathy/admiration/ empathy/compassion for a character.
Or
Write about a poem which made you think in a different way about an issue/ reconsider your views on an issue.
Regardless of which particular type of question it is you answer, your job will be to analyse the techniques used by the poet to make you, as the reader, feel sympathy/change your views/enjoy the poem etc.
With that in mind, you should be looking to analyse the most prominent techniques used by Edwin Morgan, including:
• Imagery (figurative language such as simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia) • Repetition • Caesura • Narration • Theme/Message
This booklet will give a brief recap of how Morgan employs each of these techniques in the poem and possible reasons for doing so. When you are writing about these techniques in the exam, you will gain far more credit if you can back up what you are saying with quotes and references from the text.
Imagery
Imagery is simply the way in which the poet develops pictures in the reader’s mind through his use of descriptive and figurative (simile/metaphor) language.
Imagery plays a very important part in “In the Snack-Bar” when it comes to the poet making the reader feel sympathy for the old man. The poet’s use of imagery to make the reader feel sympathy is particularly effective when he is describing the old man’s appearance to the reader:
“Like a monstrous animal caught in a tent”
This is a powerful image as it dehumanises the man, making him appear more creature-like than human, and the word “caught” has connotations of the man being almost trapped