A bomb goes off in Britain. Why?

1. A bomb goes off in Britain. Why? 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? How many ways can a bomb affect people? How might a poem be like an explosion?

2. To be successful… Have a copy of the poem in front of you ‘Belfast Confetti’ Ciaran Carson

3. What is the poem about?

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. To be successful… How does the author use language, structure and form in the poem? Have a copy of the poem in front of you ‘Belfast Confetti’ Ciaran Carson

8. How does the author use languageand imagery in the poem?

9. -confused ‘kept stuttering’ -trapped ‘why can’t I escape’ -personal (1st person) 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 Who do you think they are?

10. Carson uses an extended metaphor throughout – he compares Belfast to a sentence – broken and blocked up with punctuation marks. We see this most clearly when the speaker tells us that his ‘every move is punctuated’. This suggests that the city is fragmented and confusing. Like a sentence with too many ‘stops’, ‘exclamation marks’ and ‘question marks’, movement is difficult.

11. Suggests an explosion of broken words ‘A fount of broken type’ Implies the chaos of the bomb blast

12. ‘Dead End’ ‘labyrinth’ - A dark and terrifying maze ‘alleyways…blocked’

13. How does the author use structure and form in the poem?

14. “And / the explosion/ itself” What is / My Name?” Carson structures his poem using enjambment This reinforces the feeling that the speaker’s thoughts are breaking up. The frequent line breaks enact the ‘stuttering’ of the speaker’s voice.

15. Want to develop your understanding further?

16. Language filled with street names from the Crimean War. ‘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. Lists de-humanise the riot squad. ‘fusillade of questions’