GLASGOW 5 MARCH 1971 Essay
By Edwin Morgan
‘Glasgow 5 March 1971’ is a poem that has an incident, structure, imagery and word choice used. I will be describing how the author uses these methods.
In the poem a couple are walking past a shop at night and some men attempting a robbery have pushed them into the window so it will brake and they can get away with items that are in the window, while two drivers wait so all the robbers can get away. The poet describes the injuries the couple have in great detail.
The structure of this poem is instamatic, which means it does not rhyme and it is capturing a snapshot in time. The sentences in the poem are all at different lengths which could be made to represent the broken glass of the window. The effect this creates is that you can not just glide through the poem when reading it.
The poet’s use of imagery adds serious meaning to the poem. He uses very descriptive sentences to make you visualise what is happening.
“And spurts arterial blood over her wet-look white coat.”
This quote from the poem makes you imagine the blood spraying from the girl’s leg and drenching her coat in it.
“Their faces show no expression.”
This sentences lets you imagine how the robbers are reacting, they are showing no sympathy or feeling about what is happening.
The poet uses a very interesting choice of words. They all seem to make the poem sound very serious.
“With a ragged diamond”
The poet uses ragged instead of other words like sharp. This shows that the broken glass was really pointy and dangerous.
“Braced for impact”
The poet used the word impact instead of saying braced for pain or braced for the fall.
The poet used this quote to show that the couple had been shocked but they prepared themselves for contact and pain.