A bomb goes off in Britain. Why?

How might a poem be like an explosion?

How many ways can a bomb affect people?

Can you think of any alternative reasons?

You survive an explosion – what are your first feelings?

How might a poet use structure to reflect this?

A bomb is an effective way to get what you want. Agreed?

How might a poet use punctuation to reflect this?

‘Belfast Confetti’

Ciaran Carson

Have a copy

of the poem

in front of you

To be successful…

What is the poem about?

What is the poem about?

Belfast Confetti is set during the Northern Irish Troubles.

Belfast is a city with a violent religious divide. Catholic and Protestant terror groups made Belfast a dangerous place to live in the late twentieth century.

The poem explores how conflict affects ordinary people.

Belfast Confetti is the name for homemade shrapnel that terrorists would use in their bombs.

What happens in the poem?

There is an ‘explosion’ just before the poem starts and the ‘Belfast Confetti’ falls on the speaker.

The speaker is stopped by the ‘riot squad’ and, though they know Belfast ‘so well’, they cannot ‘escape’ – they are in a ‘dead end’

The poem ends with ‘a fusillade’ of questions from the security forces – clearly they are suspicious.

What does the poem mean?The poem suggests that:

The conflict has turned Belfast into a terrifying ‘labyrinth’ full of ‘dead-ends’.

Conflict interrupts your ability to think and communicate – you may even forget where you are ‘coming from’ and where you are ‘going’.

The poem is ambiguous – it does not openly condemn the terrorists who caused ‘the explosion’.

On the other hand, the riot squad seem threatening. The poet may be critical of the way the police treated people in Northern Ireland.

‘Belfast Confetti’

Ciaran Carson

Have a copy

of the poem

in front of you

To be successful…

How does the author use language, structure and form in the poem?

How does the author

use language and

imagery in the poem?

How could we describe the voice?

The speaker could be:

-an innocent resident-a victim of ‘the explosion’-a police suspect-on their own or in a group

-perhaps even a terrorist themselves

-confused ‘kept stuttering’

-trapped‘why can’t I escape’

-personal (1st person)

Who do you think they are?

This suggests that the city is fragmented and confusing. Like a sentence with too many ‘stops’, ‘exclamation marks’ and ‘question marks’, movement is difficult.

We see this most clearly when the speaker tells us that his ‘every move is punctuated’.

Carson uses an extended metaphor throughout – he compares Belfast to a sentence – broken and blocked up with punctuation marks.

‘A fount of

broken type’Suggests an

explosion of

broken words

Implies the chaos of the bomb blast

‘labyrinth’- A dark and terrifying maze

‘alleyways…blocked’

‘Dead End’

How does the author

use structure and form in the poem?

This reinforces the feeling that the speaker’s thoughts are breaking up. The frequent line breaks enact the ‘stuttering’ of the speaker’s voice.

Carson structures his poem using enjambment

“And / the explosion/itself”

What is /My Name?”

Want to develop your understanding

further?

Language filled with street names from the Crimean War.

‘fusillade of questions’

Lists de-humanise the riot squad.

‘Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa’

‘Kremlin-2 Mesh. Makrolon face-shields’

A fusillade is an army firing at once

Remind reader of violent British colonial history.

Suggests barriers between face to face conflict.

Metaphor implies words can be as violent as guns.