2. Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining
exclamation marks,
Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And the
explosion.
Itself - an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst
of rapid fire…
I was trying to complete a sentence in my head but it kept
stuttering,
All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and
colons.
Suggests it
happens
immediately and
unexpectedly
Metaphor – cries of fear and pain
Metal shrapnel
Metaphor – nuts and
bolts look like
punctuation marks
The explosion
Ellipsis suggests it goes on
and on
The explosion has stopped him thinking straight?
He can’t escape
3. I know this labyrinth so well - Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman,
Odessa Street -
Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea
Street. Dead end again.
A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie
-talkies. What is
My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A
fusillade of question-marks.
Crimean battles
Crimean commander
Caesura emphasises that his way is
blocked
Armoured
personnel
carrier
Anti-rocket mesh
To protect the face
Outburst of firing
Question marks highlight his
confusion
4. How does the poet use punctuation?
1. References to punctuation in the poem?
• This suggests that the shrapnel from the bombs looks like
punctuation marks as it falls from the sky.
• It also highlights emotions as we often use punctuation in
writing to emphasise feelings; for example: exclamation
marks.
2. His actual use of punctuation?
• The questions marks show his confusion.
• He uses a lot of punctuation to reflect how much shrapnel
there is in the bomb.
• Use of colons, full-stops and dashes in the middle of lines
suggests that he cannot escape from the chaos.
5. Comparing the poems
1. How is the conflict in Belfast Confetti different to the conflict in “Half-
Caste” and “Parade’s End”?
• The poem shows physical conflict involving violence towards people,
whereas in “Half-Caste”, the wrong against people is through their
words and attitudes and in “Parades End” it is also through their
attitudes and through vandalism.
• The poem shows the damage that can be caused by terrorism, whereas
the other two poems focus on prejudice.
2. Are there any similarities between the poems?
• “Belfast Confetti” and “Parade’s End” both show hate crimes through
the eyes of innocent victims.
• All three poems suggest how conflict can make the victim feel.
• All three poems create unusual images to help convey their ideas.
