Trio Edwin Morgan The Title Trio means three

Trio Edwin Morgan

The Title • ‘Trio’ means three of something – Connotations • Three people playing music together • Three kings / wise men • As with ‘Good Friday’: – Realistic details – Present tense – sense of immediacy

Beginning of poem Lines 1 -5 • Slightly grim opening line Coming up Buchanan Street, quickly, on a sharp winter evening a young man and two girls, under the Christmas lights – The young man carries a new guitar in his arms, the girl on the inside carries a very young baby, and the girl on the outside carries a chihuahua. • Ref to religious festival (see GF) - allusion to three wise men + star • Each of the three carries something precious (gold, frankincense and myrrh) • Carries x 3 = keeping safe / protecting

Lines 6 -8 And the three of them are laughing, their breath rises in a cloud of happiness, and as they pass the boy says, ‘Wait till he sees this but!’ • Metaphor – suggests happiness at being joined together (by breath) • Dialogue – communicates enthusiasm • Glaswegian dialect – nonstandard use of ‘but’

Lines 9 -11 The chihuahua has a tiny Royal Stewart tartan coat like a teapot-holder, the baby in its white shawl is all bright eyes and mouth like favours in a fresh sweet cake, the guitar swells out under its milky plastic cover, tied at the neck with silver tinsel tape and a brisk sprig of mistletoe. • Both baby and chihuahua are protected and cared for • Simile. Playful – continues hopeful mood • Simile – unambiguously good and pleasant • Chihuahua / baby / guitar = all fragile but safe • Longest lines in the poem – love and generosity should not be restricted • Festive. Very detailed description – captures the moment

Lines 12 -15 Orphean sprig! Melting baby! Warm chihuahua! The vale of tears is powerless before you. Whether Christ is born, or is not born, you put paid to fate, it abdicates under the Christmas lights. • Allusion to the Greek Myth of Orpheus - music has the power to raise spirits (lyre of Orpheus) • Exclamation marks – shouting with happiness • Biblical allusion. Vale of tears = life! • Questions value of religion / religious festival • Word choice: 'abdicate' = king or queen stepping down. Fate (bad luck) has no power in face of happy three

Lines 16 -18 Monsters of the year go blank, are scattered back, can’t bear this march of three. • Repetition of previous idea (fate backing down before trio’s happiness) • Metaphor. Baby / sprig / dog are able to push back and defeat malignant (evil) forces. • Metaphor - ‘scattered' sounds like military defeat. Idea that life has bad things in store for us. Pessimistic view of life, except that these three characters will escape it! • 'March' also sounds military. Literrally - walking along street in step. Metaphorically - defeating fate / bad luck in battle

Lines 19 -23 – And the three have passed, vanished in the crowd (yet not vanished, for in their arms they wind the life of men and beasts, and music, laughter ringing them round like a guard) at the end of this winter’s day. • Closes parenthesis from line 2. Shows how short the sight of the family is. Positions them as something rare / precious. • Bracketed parenthesis explains how in a metaphorical sense, they have not vanished. • 'Guard' simile protects them • Final line returns to the slightly grim, sad detail of it being winter

Trio Questions • Identify two of the three gifts the trio are holding and explain their significance with relation to theme throughout the poem. 2 • Look at lines 1 – 2. Show the poet’s use of language brings the scene to life. 2 • In your own words, explain the effect the indented phrase ‘under the Christmas lights’ has on the poem. 2 • This poem has a realistic feel. Choose at least one other poem by Morgan and explain how it too is made to seem realistic. 8