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Glasgow Sonnet Essay

Decent Essays

Glasgow sonnet is a touching poem written by Edwin Morgan and is about how Glasgow used to be, years ago and the effects that it had on people. It deals with an important issue such as poverty and we see the reality of it and how it shouldn’t be ignored. By examining Morgans use of techniques we will be able to seen more of the effects of poverty and how and things actually are Morgans makes the poem particularly effective by the use of sonnet structure, the first 8 lines show us the area and the surroundings and the second half shows us the inside of the situation including people having to deal with this poverty.

Straight away the opening line sets the scene and immediately gives us an image of the place and just how depressing the …show more content…

It also gives us a clear image that all the window are destroyed and that children are playing some ofrm of game, this also suggests that the children are bored and have nothing to do so they try to smash window. Also gives off a sense of decay and left over ruins. This makes us think of how horrid the building must look and this deals with poverty as children should be doing something else to entertain themselves. Also that people actually live in that damaged building where windows are smashed.

We now see the people that actually have to live here and who are reading with this poverty;
“mother and daughter the last mistresses” by saying “mother and daughter” it suggests generations caught in poverty and theres no way to get out of it . the word “mistresses” has conotations of pride and an owner of a mansion or something spectacular. The poet deals with this part particulary well as he makes us think about how they are stuck within poverty and how it seems to be difficult to get out of it. We wonder why Morgan has to show that there is some hope. This use of irony further highlights the absurdity of the extent of poverty that they are actually in.

we continue to move on and see that things seem to just be getting harder and Morgan uses everyday objects to describe the life situation;
“around them the cracks deepen”

Here a metaphor is used in describing the cracks in life and socirty as

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