Belfast Confetti

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.

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.

Conflict Poetry: Identifying Writer’s Ideas and Analysing Language for Effect

Task: Read carefully the poem you have been given from the Conflict cluster. Once you have read and considered the poem:

Create 10 developed statements. Each statement must contain a ‘starter’ phrase, ‘main course’ phrase and a ‘dessert’ phrase.

Starter: An idea present in the poem is that… One of the main ideas evident… Another message contained within the poem is…

Main Course: The writer uses… A technique deployed by the writer is… The use of…

Dessert: This suggests… Another interpretation of this could be… It could also be interpreted… The effect of this is… In additional, it could also suggest…

Due: Tuesday 3rd November

Help: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryconflict/belfastconfetti1.shtml