In The Snack Bar
“In The Snack-bar” is a poem by Edwin Morgan. It tells the story of an old, blind man’s time in a snack bar in Glasgow. It tells about how he needs to trust complete strangers when he needs someone to help him do simple, everyday tasks. I’m going to look at the different techniques the poet has used and how this poem teaches us a little bit about blindness, and the embarrassment people must go through.
The poem starts by telling us the old mans dirty, scruffy looking appearance and his trouble standing up. At first we don’t know that he is blind, but as the first section of the poem goes on, it becomes quite clear to the reader. We then read about a perfect stranger taking this old man to the toilet and how long it took for them to get there. The stranger had to tell the man every step to take and where to go and where to stand. We are then told about how much help he needs in the toilet and the help he gets on the bus.
The poet uses a range of poetic techniques to paint a vivid picture of the scenes in this poem. In the first stanza Edwin Morgan opens it with alliteration. He says “A cup capsizes” to emphasise the cup falling on the table. This immediately attracts out attention and makes us want to read on. He then goes on to tell us the old mans struggle to get up. “Slowly he levers himself up”. Morgan’s word choice here suggests it’s hard for him to get up and that his arms have very little power. To tell us about this mans appearance the poet says “The dismal hump looming over him forces his head down”. This makes us think his head is low down and his hump is high up and that he doesn’t stand up straight. “Like a monstrous animal caught in a tent in some story.” We then get the impression that his clothes are too big for him and that he must dress himself with whatever he can get his hands on first, and that he resembles an animal in his movements. He also doesn’t sit still, “he sways slightly”, but I think this is because he cannot see, and it is very hard to sit still when you cannot see. He stands with his head down, facing the ground, with his cap on his head. “Even on his feet he is staring at the floor”, to me, this suggests that he always has his head down no matter what he is doing, maybe to hide his face so people cannot see he is blind, or just because it’s easier for him to balance. Morgan then introduces first person, which makes me think this is a real experience for him. The old man announces that he needs to go to the toilet for the whole snack-bar to hear, in hope that someone will be kind enough to take him there.
