Slate Edwin Morgan Background to the poem Appears

Slate Edwin Morgan

Background to the poem • Appears to be about geology, but is in fact political • From collection ‘Sonnets from Scotland’ (1984) • Written after Scottish Referendum of 1979 (country voted to remain in UK, as in 2015) • Written as a response of disappointment • Morgan: – considers enormous changes to Scotland brought about by geology – imagines changes yet to come.

Form of the poem = Sonnet • Sonnet – a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having five stresses per line. 2021/2/21

Opening lines • Introduce the idea of change • Depicts land we know as Scotland in its prehistoric years: – millions of years before arrival of humans – describes landscape was developed shaped 2021/2/21

Middle of Poem • Examines details of the landscape: – Hills / mountains / the Great Glen • Rugged nature of the Scottish landscape: – tough conditions that moulded the features of the land. – Unforgiving weather • Suggests hardy land has been subjected to the elements 2021/2/21

Key ideas in poem: • Beautiful landscape is product of slow, dramatic change • Scotland (the place and the idea) is tough and long lasting • Scotland is important • Change is difficult and slow 2021/2/21

Final four lines • Shifts focus in final four lines – known as the ‘volta’ (specific to sonnets) • Arrival of humans is mentioned – speaker summarises his observations: • Scotland = defiant / beautiful / stoic (shows no emotion) • Continues idea of change / frustration • Conclusion = hopeful – encourages us to take stock, reassess and push on with progress.

First four lines Lines 1 -4 There is no beginning. We saw Lewis laid down, when there was not much but thunder and volcanic fires; watched long seas plunder faults; laughed as Staffa cooled. Drumlins blue as • Double meaning: – Landscape so ancient it predates records – Scotland unable to begin new period with its own parliament (1979 – not today!) • All seeing narrator – supernatural? • Violent beginnings – country is used to dramatic change • Plunder = personification + pessimism

• Drumlins = rounded humps left by glaciers Middle six lines Lines 5 -10 (Drumlins blue as) bruises were grated off like nutmegs; bens, and a great glen, gave a rough back we like to think the ages must streak, surely strike, seldom stroke, but raised and shaken, with tens of thousands of rains, blizzards, seapoundings shouldered off into night and memory. • Simile = violent formation of landscape. ‘Bruises’ = further personification. Landscape is living • Extended metaphor – Scotland still described as a living being • 5 x alliteration – connects ideas about what will affect the land its people • ‘Stroke’ = treat gently • List emphasises power of what is battering the country • But – country is tough • ‘Shouldered’ - personification

Last four lines Lines 11 -14 Memory of men! That was to come. Great in their empty hunger these surroundings threw walls to the sky, the sorry glory of a rainbow. Their heels kicked flint, chalk, slate. • Mankind dealt with quickly – Landscape has been around longer, so gets more treatment in poem • Personification • Rainbow sorry because it is brief – landscape endures for ever • List of undramatic substances grounds the grand ideas of the poem