In the Snack Bar.

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In the Snack Bar

The poem “In the Snack Bar” by Edwin Morgan is, in my opinion, a great poem. It tells about the disaster of a blind old man spilling his coffee and then having to announce his need of having to go to the toilet to the public in the hope that someone will find it in their heart to help him. In this I will point out the literary techniques that Morgan uses that make it a great poem.

   In the poem I think Morgan’s word choice is excellent. He turns what most people would simply class as an everyday occurrence into a catastrophe not just saying that the man spilt his coffee. Instead he says

           “the cup capsizes along the formica” 

and the cup didn’t fall to the floor and smash it

         “slithered to the floor with a dull clatter”

 I think both of these expressions convey a great feeling of disaster due to the unusual word choice and also draw to our attention that the man spilling his coffee is an important part of the poem and this made it a great poem.

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   Another important part of this poem is the way in which he describes the blind man’s appearance. He describes by, for example, personifying the hump on the man’s back by saying that it “looms” over him which gives the impression that his hump is almost controlling him. He also contrasts the man “shambling uncouth” to the “clinical gleam” of the toilet and says

           “his brooding reflection darkens the mirror”

 One simile he uses is saying the old man is

           “like a monstrous animal caught ...

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There is some good analysis of the language choices used in this poem but there needs to be further exploration of the way structure and form is used to shape meaning in this poem. 4 Stars