Discuss the ways Ciaran Carson's poem 'Belfast Confetti' uses form and structure to convey meaning.

Firstly, Carson's use of stanzas is striking and unusual. Instead of using conventional stanza structures, the stanzas in 'Belfast Confetti' are overstretched and long, and there are only two in the whole poem. The stanzas are also of unequal length, one being five lines and the other four. Carson also consistently uses enjambment, for example 'a burst/of rapid fire...', allowing the lines to jump over the page. All these structural features come together to give the impression that the speaker is confused and distressed, unable to gather their thoughts in this tense situation.
Secondly, Carson also plays with blank space and punctuation for effect. Whilst the language of the poem is about punctuation, the 'raining exclamation marks', the 'stops and colons', punctuation also appears frequently. Hyphens, full stops, ellipses and question marks litter the page, creating a physical image reminiscent of the spray of bullets that Carson is creating within the poem itself.

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Answered by Eleasha B. English Literature tutor

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