Belfast Confetti

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The fourth line, “I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept stuttering” means that the speaker finds it difficult to depict in words the terror that his eyes witnessed. He tried finding an escape, but he couldn’t.

Besides, he asks, “Why can’t I escape.” It means the helplessness in the heart of the poet. Even though he wishes to leave and even though he knows that he has survived, he is unable to get rid of his helplessness about being unable to help those who lost their lives in the riot. He has witnessed the death of several people right in front of his eyes, due to which he just can’t forget the violent memories. The poem ‘Belfast Confetti,’ one of the best-known poems of Ciaran Carson, pulls the reader into the aftermath of Belfast’s sectarian riot. He has used punctuationto symbolize missiles that Protestants used during this riot, which was against the Catholic crowd in Belfast. Easter, 1916 by William Butler Yeats– It’s another poem that describes the Easter Rising from the history of Ireland. This poem is regarded as one of the popular poems of W.B. Yeats. Explore more poems from W.B. Yeats. Carson’s speaker describes the war-like situation in the second line. The speaker can imagine a found of broken images floating in his mind and hear the sound of the explosion. In this line, the phrase, “Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys” hints at the scrap metals used as weapons by the Protestants during the “Troubles” in Ireland. In the 1970’s the Irish nationalist groups started to use violence in an attempt to gain independence from Britain. The British army occupied the streets of Northern Ireland to protect the Catholics. However, they saw it as an unwanted occupation.The hidden meaning behind his words means that even if he has escaped the riot and survived, he will never be able to get rid of the sight that he witnessed; the violent scene is going to haunt his memories forever. This poem is about the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants, known as The Troubles, when in the 1960’s the Catholic community claimed they were being discriminated against by the Protestants.

Carson has adopted a narrative style in this poem ‘Belfast Confetti’ to depict an entire scene to the readers. They can feel the horrifying scene just like it is depicted by the poet. By reading this poem, one can easily understand the pain that the scene and the riot must have caused to the poet. Carson has used the first-person narrative style to describe his feelings in the most efficient way. It is a free verse poem. The third line contains references to two punctuation marks, asterisk, and hyphen. Here, “an asterisk” depicts the sparkles that were born due to the explosions during the fight. The “hyphenated line” is metaphorically connected with the “burst of rapid fire”. There is an ellipsis at the end of this line referring to the continuation of events.Outside History by Eavan Boland – This poem speaks on the larger history of Ireland, the role of women in history, and the life of stars. Read more Eavan Boland poems.