‘What perspective does the poet take on conflict and how is this perspective

conveyed?’
Ivan Lee Y9P

Belfast Confetti is a war poem written by Ciaran Carson during the 1990s. Ciaran
Carson is not only a poet but also a novelist. He was born in 1948 and his poems are often
influenced by his Irish roots. In the poem ‘Belfast confetti’, it talks about a period known as
‘the troubles’ that took place in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. This
period occurred with the protestants and the catholics, with the protestants wanting to
remain part of United Kingdom and the Catholics wanting to fight for independence from the
United Kingdom. The riot took place on the streets of Belfast and caused thousands of
people to die in the past three decades.The poem is written in the first person as the poet
himself has experienced the riot.

Throughout the poem ‘Belfast Confetti’, the poet takes on conflict by highlighting the
effects of violence on individuals. The use of poetic devices and poem structures can be
seen as a tool throughout the poem to convey his perspectives. The poet sees the riot and
conflict as a confused and an unnecessary event that disoriented many people in many
ways and he chose to express that by pointing out the effects on individuals. Firstly, the poet
can be seen using rhetorical questions to convey his perspectives. In “Belfast Confetti”, the
poet expresses a sense of confusion on the speaker by stating: “What is my name?” / “Why
can’t I escape?” / “Where am I coming from?” / “Where am I going?”. In these quotes, the
poet used rhetorical questions. By using this technique, it allows the readers to see that the
speaker is confused and frustrated as there’s an apparent lack of answers. Secondly, the
use of punctuations throughout the poem are also used to convey the poet’s perspective on
conflict. In the poem, the poet uses words such as “exclamation marks”, “stops and colons”,
“hyphenated line”, “punctuated” and “asterisk” to symbolise the conflict on the streets and to
also show that the poet is unable to think properly due to the trauma from the riot.

Furthermore, the poem structure can also be seen as another tool to exhibit the
confusion of the speaker. Throughout the poem, the poem structure can be seen all over the
place as the poet did not include any metre, rhythm or rhyme scheme. However, it’s not all
bad. The messy structure can be used to symbolise the poet’s perspectives. Since the poet
wants the readers to read the poem with confusion like the people after the bomb was
detonated, its perfect to have an unorganised structure as it would allow the readers to have
a better visual image of the situation. This will then allow the readers to understand the
poet’s perspective on conflict as they were placed in the position of the victims.

In conclusion, the use of poetic devices and poem structure plays an important part in
conveying the perspective of the poet as it helps to highlight the disorienting effects of riot on
individuals (in this case it’s the poet himself) and to create a horrifying atmosphere on the
conflict.