Belfast Confetti Notes

'Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining

exclamation marks,

Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And the

explosion.

Itself - an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire…

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head but it kept

stuttering,

All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops.'

Suggests it happens immediately and unexpectedly

Metaphor – cries of fear and pain

Metal shrapnel

The explosion has stopped him thinking straight?

How does the poet use punctuation?

References to punctuation in the poem?

This suggests that the shrapnel from the bombs looks like punctuation marks as it falls from the sky.

It also highlights emotions as we often use punctuation in writing to emphasise feelings; for example: exclamation marks.

His actual use of punctuation?

The questions marks show his confusion.

He uses a lot of punctuation to reflect how much shrapnel there is in the bomb.

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Belfast Confetti