Out Of The Blue And Belfast Confetti Analysis
Comparative Essay – “How does the writer present fear in Out of the Blue and Belfast Confetti”?
In both Out of the Blue by Simon Armitage and Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson, the poets both present fear through a number of techniques. Both describe a city and its civilians under attack, exposing the impacts of terrorism on its victims.
They are similarly written in a free-verse structure, which clearly illustrates the exposed and fearful state in which the ‘narrators’ are left in. In Belfast Confetti, the questioning of the guards combined with Carson’s disorientation within his own region is also mirrored in Out of the Blue; where the man is trapped inside the building he worked in – a frenzy of media coverage closing in on him. …show more content…
In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences, and seen as tool to regulate and control text. In the poem however they interrupt the flow of the text: ”every move is punctuated” “dead end again” – symbolizing the disruptive impact on daily life in Belfast, with short sentences within long lines symbolizing how roads have been blocked off. This sense of entrapment is further deepened with the increasing intensity of military vernacular – “Saracens, kremlin-2 mesh, makrolon face-shields” all onomastic symbols representing the build up of tension and militarization through the ever-narrowing paths of the “labyrinth” which Carson knew so well. This is similar to the wailing sirens in Out of the Blue, creating an air of tension throughout the whole area, but also sense of reality for the man, reminding him of all the other individuals who have plunged to their fate, and perhaps casting a judgment upon his own life and whether it is even “worth saving”. There are subtle differences between the two poems. In Out of the Blue the heat is personified as a bullying force, driving the man to his inevitable death “bullying, driving”. In Belfast Confetti however, these religious connotations are not present, instead the punctuation creating imagery within the poem. “A fount of broken type”
In both Out of the Blue by Simon Armitage and Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson, the poets both present fear through a number of techniques. Both describe a city and its civilians under attack, exposing the impacts of terrorism on its victims.
They are similarly written in a free-verse structure, which clearly illustrates the exposed and fearful state in which the ‘narrators’ are left in. In Belfast Confetti, the questioning of the guards combined with Carson’s disorientation within his own region is also mirrored in Out of the Blue; where the man is trapped inside the building he worked in – a frenzy of media coverage closing in on him. …show more content…
In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences, and seen as tool to regulate and control text. In the poem however they interrupt the flow of the text: ”every move is punctuated” “dead end again” – symbolizing the disruptive impact on daily life in Belfast, with short sentences within long lines symbolizing how roads have been blocked off. This sense of entrapment is further deepened with the increasing intensity of military vernacular – “Saracens, kremlin-2 mesh, makrolon face-shields” all onomastic symbols representing the build up of tension and militarization through the ever-narrowing paths of the “labyrinth” which Carson knew so well. This is similar to the wailing sirens in Out of the Blue, creating an air of tension throughout the whole area, but also sense of reality for the man, reminding him of all the other individuals who have plunged to their fate, and perhaps casting a judgment upon his own life and whether it is even “worth saving”. There are subtle differences between the two poems. In Out of the Blue the heat is personified as a bullying force, driving the man to his inevitable death “bullying, driving”. In Belfast Confetti however, these religious connotations are not present, instead the punctuation creating imagery within the poem. “A fount of broken type”