Carson has used the first-person narrative style to describe his feelings in the most efficient way. It is a free verse poem. 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. Line 8: “S,” “r,” “c,” “n,” “K,” “r,” “m,” “n,” “m,” “sh,” “M,” “k,” “r,” “c,” “sh,” “s,” “W,” “k,” “k,” “s,” “W,” “s” BelfastConfettiandWWTL-thefirstisapoemaboutconfusionduringaconflict,thesecondisaboutpossibleeffectsofconflict Half-casteandNoProblem-challengingracismindifferentways(personallyIwouldlookmoreatcomparingHalf-castetoTheClassGame)

Sample question - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - GCSE English Sample question - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - GCSE English

Summer 1969 by Seamus Heaney– It’s one of the best-known Seamus Heaney poems. This poem was written during the Ulster riots of 1969 and explores the theme of conflict. Read more Seamus Heaney poems. This poem is about the aftermath of the “Troubles” that were an ethnic-nationalist period of conflict in Northern Ireland. The situation lasted for 30 years from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. It is also known as the Northern Ireland conflict. The poet describes the aftermath of the sectarian riot in Belfast. His speaker describes how the confusion outside leads to a chain of internal confusions. He cannot think properly. The events that he observed keep flooding his mind, leaving him only with questions. In the eighth line, the speaker speaks incoherently. Firstly, he refers to the Saracen tanks and the metal netting used over the tanks that are known as the Kremlin-2 mesh. The police used those things to control the riot. They used “Makrolon face-shields” while the mob only had nuts, bolts, nails, and car keys. To communicate among themselves they used Walkie-talkies. Ireland, 2002 by Paul Durcan – In this poem, readers can find the themes of change, progress, and Irish identity. Explore more poems of Paul Durcan.

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Ciaran Carson is a poet and novelist who was born in Northern Ireland and has always had a deep passion for politics. He grew up in an era of political uproar and Northern Irish terrorism that scarred the Uk’s political and social life. Around the 1970’s the IRA (Irish Republican Army) failed to retrieve independence from British rule. The poem begins in media res with the riot squad moving in. The effect is to plunge the reader immediately into the terror and violence of the riot. The allegory of Carson using punctuation to portray the violence begins as he describes it as ‘raining exclamation marks’.

Language and imagery - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - BBC Language and imagery - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - BBC

He was bestowed with the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize for “The Irish For No” (1987) and has also won the Irish Times’ Irish Literature Prize for Poetry for ‘Belfast Confetti’. Besides being an author and a novelist, he is also a well-known musician and columnist. He has still not left his pen. Kumar, Dharmender. "Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson". Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/ciaran-carson/belfast-confetti/. Accessed 1 November 2023. Belfast Confetti" was written by the Irish poet Ciaran Carson and published in the collection The Irish for No in 1987. In the poem, an unnamed speaker appears to be caught up in a bomb blast and tries to escape. The poem then explores the relationship between violence and language itself, as the disoriented speaker searches for an escape route. According to Carson, the poem is set in August 1969 during the Troubles, a violent conflict that took place in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. 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.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 following poems similarly showcase the themes included in Ciaran Carson’s haunting lyric ‘Belfast Confetti’. The allegory of using punctuation to symbolises the horrors of the riot continues here. Carson identifies how full ‘stops’ and ‘colons’ act like a barrier between two sentences or clauses in literature and transfers this to barriers, likely scattered debris, to the riot-torn streets. Peter Barry (2000). Contemporary British Poetry and the City. Manchester University Press. pp.226–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5594-2.