The two poems I will be comparing are ‘at the border’ and ‘Belfast confetti’. At the border is based on a poets description of her refugee journey from Iraq to Kurdistan whereas Belfast Confetti is based on terrorist attacks in Belfast during the Irish civil war. At the Border is about a past conflict. Hardi describes that she had a thick iron chain between her feet indicating she was some form of prisoner. In comparison to Belfast Confetti, Hardi’s at the border is more based around a physical conflict whereas Carson’s Belfast Confetti is based on a mental and physical conflict.
When Hardi says ‘The land under our feet continued divided by a think chain’, it could be implying that she is a physical prisoner. In comparison to Belfast confetti, Carson says ‘I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept stuttering’. This shows that Carson is a prisoner to his mind. The similarities between these poems is the background history. The Irish civil war is to do with two parts of society fighting for their faiths, the Northern Irish fighting to stay Protestant and the Irish fighting to make Ireland Roman Catholic, while at the border is about Sunni Muslims fighting the Shi’ite Muslims. Both of these poems are based around nations divided for what each faction believe in.
The poems are both written in a first person narrative. Hardi describing her journey back to her country and Carson describing his journey of escape from war. In both poems, the poets could both be considered refugees or asylum seekers. Both poems have examples of emphasis. Hardi uses it in her poem right at the beginning for the purpose of setting the scene. She says ‘It is your last check-in point in this country!’. Comparing it to Carson’s use of emphasis there is a huge difference. The difference is that the emphasis used is put into words rather than punctuation. Carson writes ‘it was raining exclamation marks’. He uses the word exclamation marks to describe something sudden that has happened at that point in time.
Belfast Confetti is a very significant title compared to At the border. The reason I say this is because it is a very ironic title. For the time of which this poem was written it would be considered juxtaposed. Belfast at the time was a place of war and confetti is a thing that would be related to happiness and joy whereas at the time Belfast would be linked to war, crime and death. Confetti could be a metaphor for shrapnel. The reason I would link it to shrapnel is because of the following reason. Shrapnel and confetti only have one thing in common, that is that they are both small and go everywhere. The contrast between these two poems is that, At the border’s title is much less of a metaphor wheras Belfast confettis is a juxtaposed title with confetti being a metaphor for shrapnel. At the border is a much more litteral title.
1) We know that the first stanza sets the scene for Vaudevue’s death because the writes ‘left by the ebbing tide of battle’. This means that she was left behind by the battle. This is very likely meaning that she was left for dead by the aftermath of war.
2) This poem uses features which gives the idea that it takes place in the future. An example of this is ‘left behind by the ebbing tide of war’. This means vaudevue was left behind by the war or battle. Then it says ‘on the field of Austrelitz’. Austrelitz was a battle in he Napoleaonic wars. This poem describes the aftermath story for a specific character, in this case Vaudevue the girl soldier.
3) The poet repeats the word alone. This is significant to creating sadness because you would usually link the word alone to someone who is depressed or sad. Stevie Smith uses rhyming in the first stanza. He uses alone and stone. This could be a use to make an effect. The effect is that the poet links the word stone to alone. Vaudevue is on a stone all alone. Stevie Smith uses words like swiftly severing to describe the movement of the water in the lake
This poem is about a person, who is in their home and that person is describing what she sees out side in the dark. The poet uses the first word that comes to the poets mind to describe what the poet sees outside. Imtiaz Dharker uses words like terrorist, freedom fighter, hostile militant and guerilla warrior. This poem was written post 9/11. The poet uses the words wavering flag. Flag is a word used to show a persons identity, territory and nationality. If someone were to wave a flag like the Kosovan flag, it could show that, that person supports a team or group. However the mood of the poem changes when Dharker changes the word to a boy. She becomes less afraid and decides to let him in to this building she is in, pressumably her home. The way the poem uses emotion is through her feelings as she describes what she sees outside. When she thinks she sees a terrorist, she is scared. When she thinks she sees a freedom fighter, she feels less afraid than before. When she thinks she sees a hostile militant, she goes back to having a sense of fear. Finnaly when she sees a gurriella soldier, her fear is the same. However the atmosphere all changes when she sees a boy. It changes in the way that she is not afraid anymore of whats out there. She describes the boy to be like her own son or someone elses son. She calls him a martyr as well. Because she is not afraid of this boy she decides to let him in.