Belfast Confetti

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The “Saracen” is a reference to the tanks used by the riot police to disperse the mob from the situation. He has used punctuationto symbolize missiles that Protestants used during this riot, which was against the Catholic crowd in Belfast. He uses a first-person narrative technique to describe the events during the Troubles in Belfast from the perspective of a person who was there at that time.

Context - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - GCSE English Literature

In the 1970’s the Irish nationalist groups started to use violence in an attempt to gain independence from Britain.Every single scene has been presented and depicted just the way it must have happened, way back then. In the first line, “exclamation marks” means the screaming voices of people, who were being ruthlessly killed during the riot. In his collection of poems, this poem is one of the most amazing and famous poems that the readers have ever come across. It was framed by a civil rights march in Londonderry on 5 October 1968 and the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998.

Edexcel English Literature GCSE Poetry Collection: Conflict

It is also featured in AQA's GCSE Anthology book as it is studied as part of the GCSE Literature course. Carson describes how the external tension and conflict influence his mind, making him restless and tense. Cover Ciaran Carson's Belfast Confetti for Edexcel English Literature and spend less time planning and more time teaching with Beyond. Youcoulddowith'TheManHeKilled'throughthesenseofbeingfoesand'APoisonTree'notbeingabletocommunicatetheiremotionsastheypreviouslyhaddoneandfeelingremorsefulunlikein'TheManHeKilled'hewondersandattemptstojustifyhisactions. The list features asyndeton to portray the rapid brutality of the riot and creates a sound like gunfire when spoken.

When you read ‘Belfast Confetti,’ you, as a reader, feel like you are witnessing the entire scene all by yourself. It tells readers how the conflicts in history (especially the Troubles in Northern Ireland) impacted those who tried to remain detached from the situation. The sentences are short and choppy, some just phrases, to imitate the irregular sound of gunfire and home-made missiles being thrown. Around the 1970’s the IRA (Irish Republican Army) failed to retrieve independence from British rule. The poem is about the aftermath of the Troubles (a period of conflict in Northern Ireland ranging for about 30 years) in the capital city of Northern Ireland, Belfast.

Belfast Confetti (poem) - Wikipedia

To be specific, Carson talks about the FV603 Saracen or Alvis Saracen tanks used by the British army that became recognizable for their use in the policing of Northern Ireland. Belfast Confetti" was written by the Irish poet Ciaran Carson and published in the collection The Irish for No in 1987. This conflict took place when the minority population of Catholics was dominated, discriminated against, and also harassed by the Protestant majority.He has has a degree in English literature from Delhi University, and Mass Communication from Bhartiya Vidhya Bhavan, Delhi, as well as holding a law degree. Look again at this poem, and at one other poem from the Identity anthology which also deals with the theme of identity as story.

Form and structure - Belfast Confetti - CCEA - BBC

The narrator’s inability to ‘complete a sentence in [his] head’ is a metaphor for the chaos and irrationality of the riot and the disorientating effect this is having on his composure. IwaswonderingifIcouldgetawaywithstudyingafewpoemsindepth,thatmoreorlesscancomparetoanyotherpoem,suchasHalfcaste,TheClassGameorExposureandafewmore. Belfast Confetti creates a sense of place through the use of proper nouns close proper noun Refers to a person, place or the name of an organisation or brand.The following poems similarly showcase the themes included in Ciaran Carson’s haunting lyric ‘Belfast Confetti’.