‘Strawberries’
By Edwin Morgan
Learning Intentions
• Form your first impressions of the poem
‘Strawberries’
• Show your understanding of the central
concerns of the poem and how these are
conveyed
• Begin to analyse the key poetic devices used
by Morgan in ‘Strawberries’
Edwin Morgan 1920 - 2011
• The poet Edwin Morgan was born in Glasgow and has lived
there all his life.
• He served in the British Army during the Second World War.
• He worked all his life as a translator, lecturer and professor.
• He has written plays as well as poetry.
• His writes from a city point of view so that in ‘Strawberries’
he pictures the countryside in an energetic way. He
dramatises a storm in the background.
• Morgan's poetry often takes an original or unusual form.
Strawberries
While you eat your strawberries, think about:
• What do strawberries make you think of?
• What do you associate with strawberries?
• What type of poem would you associate with
this fruit?
USE YOUR SENSES!
Strawberries
Listen to Edwin Morgan reading out his poem
and begin to form your first impressions in
preparation for I see, I think, I wonder.
I See, I Think, I Wonder
On your own, read over ‘Strawberries’ and begin
to form your first impressions. As a group, fill
out your I See, I Think, I Wonder sheets.
I See, I Think, I Wonder
I See = write down what you can see in the poem. For
example: different poetic techniques etc.
I Think = write down what you think is happening in the
poem. For example: what is being described? Who do
you think the speaker is? What emotions does this
poem describe? Etc.
I Wonder = write down any questions you have about the
poem. Is there something you don’t understand? What
issues does this poem raise in you?
Summary
The poet recalls a summer afternoon of intense
love. He recalls sitting with his lover on the
steps of a building outside a french
window. The afternoon weather was warm
and thundery. He and his lover were sitting
close to each other, with his knees held inside
his knees.
The poet says...
"Meeting [John Scott] in 1963 was probably the thing that
unleashed most of the poems in the 1960s … All the
love poems from the 1960s were started off by
meeting him and were about him in various ways …
Most of them, not every one exactly, but most of them
did come out of things that actually happened.
'Strawberries' came out of eating strawberries on that
French window, there in fact [points], from which you
can see the Kilpatrick Hills, so that just comes from life
if you like. It just happened really pretty well exactly as
it is there. Most of them are rather like that, though in
some cases a bit of imagination comes into it.”
A reader says...
"In its economy of setting and deceptive simplicity
of expression, how evocative and sensuous it is
from the outset, and how subtly sustained the
alliterative pattern of 's' and 'st' sounds pinning
its two-beat lines in place. But it is the last line
which touchingly clinches things, both at a
practical, almost mundane level and in conjuring
up, in the intense heat, an alternative urgency. I
sense in it a reminder of how moments of
intimacy must be grasped, in the face not just of
the elements but of mortality."
Love Poetry
Love is one of poetry’s enduring themes. The experience
of love is, after all, the nearest most people get to
complete happiness and fulfilment.
Morgan’s love poems stand rather apart from the rest of
his works. They give us glimpses of private life and
domesticity which are notably absent elsewhere.
However, these are glimpse only, because in other
ways these are intensely private poems. The loved
ones are never named or described in any detail, but
always referred to as ‘you’ or ‘your’ with no indication
of status. This vagueness does not detract from the
effectiveness of the poetry. It seems, instead, to give it
a universal quality,
Understanding the poem
Numbered Heads
1) Where and when is the poem set?
2) There are just two characters in the poem,
the 'I' and the 'you' – what do we learn about
each of them?
3) What aspects of the characters does the poet
not describe, and how does this affect your
reading of the poem?
4) What changes over the course of the poem?
Techniques
In groups, make a list of the techniques you
think you could write about in the poem
‘Strawberries’.
Techniques
Structure
Imagery
Pathetic fallacy
Tone
Word choice
Theme
Symbolism
Summary
Yet a short summary of the poem and the
themes you think you can analyse within it.