Leaving Belfast
Garai Merino Bilbao
Leaving Belfast by Andrew Motion
Focused on a conflictive time for Belfast, Andrew Motion tries to express the devastation that Belfast suffered during the economy’s decline years and the influence that the political issues had in the society. The narrator’s sadness for having to leave his beloved city can be felt all over the poem.
The poem was published at a very difficult time for Belfast. Conflicts and violence were present in all the streets. On the one hand, manufacturing industries were on a decline and economy was in its worst situation; on the other hand, the city was divided in two parts: the Catholics and the Protestants.
The poem introduced us two people going to the airport. One of them has decided to stay in the city, but the other wants to leave it. On the way to the airport, the narrator looks back from the top of the hills of the road and feels nostalgia for leaving the city behind. The author uses lots of descriptions which are representative of the sadness of the narrator, but also of the image that the city had acquired. As the narrator states, he doesn’t leave Belfast because of fear, although the violence of the bombs could make him feel scared; he leave it because he feels like a stranger in his own city and because the political issues are having a tremendous impact in the habitants of the city.
In the last part of the poem, the narrators explains what is the thing most annoying for him. His beloved city doesn’t seem to be on the way of the change so, unfortunately, he has to leave from Belfast and let it behind.
Leaving Belfast is a 7 stanzas poem consisted of 4 lines in each stanza, what we call a quatrain. The feet analyzed in the poem don’t seem to have any relation between them, but we could say that although the position of the stressed syllable doesn’t seem to have any concordance, most of them are what we call Rising feet, because in most of the occasions the unstressed syllables happen to
Leaving Belfast by Andrew Motion
Focused on a conflictive time for Belfast, Andrew Motion tries to express the devastation that Belfast suffered during the economy’s decline years and the influence that the political issues had in the society. The narrator’s sadness for having to leave his beloved city can be felt all over the poem.
The poem was published at a very difficult time for Belfast. Conflicts and violence were present in all the streets. On the one hand, manufacturing industries were on a decline and economy was in its worst situation; on the other hand, the city was divided in two parts: the Catholics and the Protestants.
The poem introduced us two people going to the airport. One of them has decided to stay in the city, but the other wants to leave it. On the way to the airport, the narrator looks back from the top of the hills of the road and feels nostalgia for leaving the city behind. The author uses lots of descriptions which are representative of the sadness of the narrator, but also of the image that the city had acquired. As the narrator states, he doesn’t leave Belfast because of fear, although the violence of the bombs could make him feel scared; he leave it because he feels like a stranger in his own city and because the political issues are having a tremendous impact in the habitants of the city.
In the last part of the poem, the narrators explains what is the thing most annoying for him. His beloved city doesn’t seem to be on the way of the change so, unfortunately, he has to leave from Belfast and let it behind.
Leaving Belfast is a 7 stanzas poem consisted of 4 lines in each stanza, what we call a quatrain. The feet analyzed in the poem don’t seem to have any relation between them, but we could say that although the position of the stressed syllable doesn’t seem to have any concordance, most of them are what we call Rising feet, because in most of the occasions the unstressed syllables happen to