"they are pumped on youth and ecstasy"
The adjective "pumped" emphasizes the youthfulness of the poem, describing something excitable and almost over-excited. The use of ecstasy is a semantic bridge between old and new language, and old and new poetry. The young people in the poem are experiencing ecstasy, in that they are extremely happy and feel as though they are caught up in the happiness of the group around them; however it also describes a type of recreational drug. This is representative of the juxtaposition of old and new throughout the poem.
"I think I might have got me girlfriend pregnant"
There. I did it.
He changes down a gear, furrows his brow,
sucks once on his rolly and then speaks:
"It's nowt clever, lad. Rats do it every six weeks."
The first speaker is hoping for some empathy, and possibly some sympathy; after all, his life is about to change for ever. However, his announcement is put into perspective by this comment. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking about getting his girlfriend pregnant - all animals are able to do that and as humans we like to think of ourselves as being at the top of the tree in the animal kingdom. The self-congratulation after getting his girl pregnant is also both stereotypical and ironic; the stereotype is that of a working class youth who congratulates himself for doing what all animals are able to do, and the irony is that he has not even thought about what it means to be a good father.
you'd have to get yourself a desk
as St. Andrew's
a Socialist avant la lettre
a folk revivalist and setter
a proto-Thatcherite go-getter
sell-out Blackguard
British Romantic (only better)
SCOTIA'S BARD
The entire poem is a reply to Robert Burns, and also a claim that he is of equal talent and impact to Shakespeare, by calling him "Scotland's Bard". There is also a degree of bitterness in the poet's tone; he dismisses both Socialists and Thatcherites as having sold out their respective peoples, and calls on them both to agree that Burns is the Bard of Scotland. He also uses the term for Scotia that would have been used in Burns' own time, which is an ongoing theme throughout Turnbull's poetry. He juxtaposes old and modern in all of his poems, tying them together whilst emphasizing their differences.
