Show how Edwin Morgan's 'In the Snack Bar' gives an insight into a less pleasant side to life through its use of interesting language

The first 200 words of this essay...

In the Snack Bar

"In the Snack Bar," by Edwin Morgan, is a poem which, through interesting use of language, gives the reader a degree of insight into the less pleasant side of life. This darker side to life is depicted through the character of a disabled, blind and hunchbacked old man. The reader is introduced to the old man firstly from the detached perspective of a spectator who is watching him struggle to his feet from a distance. However, as the poem progresses, Morgan leads the reader to empathise with the man's plight by illustrating - in great detail - his relentless struggle of endurance through life, despite finding the most simple, basic human functions an unspeakable effort. Through clever use of language the poet reveals the painstaking difficulties that the man has to negotiate because of his deformity and disabilities before going on to make a wider comment about humanity at large.

The first stanza introduces the old man to the reader from the perspective of an outsider watching him in the snack bar. We are told that "A cup capsizes along the formica.../A few heads turn in the crowded evening snack-bar/An old man