Belfast Confetti

Belfast Confetti

Structure
1. Two stanzas of equal length.
2. First stanza is in the past tense describing the violence and the effect of being caught up in it
3. Second stanza shifts suddenly into present – as if the narrator is suddenly back in the experience, reliving the fear.
Subject
1. Set in Northern Ireland during ‘The troubles’ – a period of terrorist incidents between IRA and Ulster Unionists. It made Belfast a terrifying place to live.
Style
1. Belfast Confetti’ is a euphemism for miscellaneous objects thrown during the riots ‘nuts, bolts…’. Sometimes they were added to IRA bombs to cause more injury. Ironic – these objects usually hold things together but in conflict used to injure and hurt. Also confetti usually thrown to celebrate a happy union rather than break relationships and create discord and havoc.
2. Lists of words are used to create panic – riot gear appears menacing. Questions at the end are in list form to suggest confusion and remind us of the impersonal questions the soldiers would be asking.
3. Punctuation is used to make sense of language – too much results in chaotic panicky sentences
4. The whole poem seems to be an extended metaphor for the way violent conflict destroys language (communication). Take away language and conflict cannot be resolved: ‘Raining exclamation marks’ suggests sudden shouts of alarm ‘An asterisk on the map’ – looks as though there has been an explosion on paper/shape of an explosion. ‘stuttering’ – sound of the ‘burst of rapid fire’/narrator cannot get his words out. All alleyways ‘blocked with stops’ in the same way full stops halts the reader. ‘Fusillade’ – one shot being fired after the other – effect one question being fired after the other as the narrator struggles with fear and uncertainty.
Goes well with Invasion and Parade's End

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	Created by Maddie Carberry over 8 years ago