Glasgow 5th of March

Glasgow 5th march

Edwin Morgan's poem "Glasgow 5th March 1971" is about an incident in Glasgow in which a man and woman have been pushed through a window so that two youths can complete a robbery. Through the use of poetic techniques such as onomatopoeia, Morgan effectively describes the moments of the incident, the extent of the man's and woman's injuries, and the lack of emotion conveyed by the two youths as to what had just happened. What im going to write about is the different types of poet’s techniques
The first technique that is used in the poem is onomatopoeia the word is used to make us visualise the glass breaking and it also tells us the type of noise the glass made when it broke. By doing this he gives us the impression of the glass breaking into tiny pieces and the noise that it would have made. "Of shattered glass "
The use of the word 'bristling', in the next couple of lines, suggests that the young man has a short beard of splintered glass and would not have been so effective if it had been the woman's face because the growth of beards is associated with men. It is also awful to think that the he may have to live the rest of his life, if he survives his injuries, with a face covered in scars. In the next few lines Morgan uses sickening irony to show how the girl's “wet-look white coat” is no longer wet-look but literally wet; no longer pure white but with splashes of contrasting red like blood on snow. The word 'spurts' also gives a much greater effect than any other word he could have used.
“plate-glass” is a strong 1970 style type of glass but mostly all people have them now, for the glass to break the individuals must have been strongly pushed, this idea is created by falling backwards” as it indicates that the injured have been picked up and threw in to the window and not just pushed. The reader actually feels as if they are at the scene of the incident, which makes the poem easier to understand. The poet tries to convey the sense of jaggy, uneven glass by using the words “ragged diamond” to “shattered plate-glass” this creates a vivid description as it builds a picture of how badly injured the wounded were. Firstly, he has the two victims “a young man and his girl are falling backwards in to a shop-window” then he continues the poem by introducing the attackers. “The two youths who have pushed them” Finally, and the most important part of the poem is the witnesses “in the background two drivers” as they are the people who have created the idea of us, the citizens and our responsibilities. The title is like a newspaper article title, chosen to create the idea that we are at the scene of the incident. The title of the poem “Glasgow 5 march 1971” is brief and gives no insight in to what the poem is going to be about.
Overall I thought “Glasgow 5 march” by Edwin Morgan was good ans very interesting poem to look at. There’s a lot of effects and images that you find. Which gives the reader a fuller picture of what’s happening