Comparison
Between ‘The
Class Game’
& ‘Belfast
Confetti’
The Class Game – Mary Casey
This Poem is about:
 Class differences and how they don’t
matter
 Whether people have the right to judge
others by their classes
 How people from lower classes are
looked down on
 How people from different classes are all
the same!
Belfast Confetti – Ciaran
Carson
 The
riots of 1969 in the main city of
Northern Ireland
 It’s the account of an individual who was
caught by the riot police
 Losing your identity in your own home
 Dealing with overwhelming panic of riots,
bombs and shrapnel
COMPARISON [Structure]
The structures of the poems are very different from each
other.
For Example,
The Class Game has a continuous flow through the poem
with no stanza breaks. This infers the course of an
argument between the poet and the reader, where the
poet is questioning the views and opinions of the different
classes and the take of the reader on the subject.
Belfast Confetti, on the other hand, has one major stanza
break which is the point where the poet switches from Past
tense into Present tense. The first stanza is about the
situation whereas the second is the effort of the poet to
get away from it.
COMPARISON [Meaning]
There are certain similarities between the meanings of the
poems and their aims.
The Class Game is about the differences between social
classes which the poet questions and renders pointless.
The last sentence of the poem “And I’m proud of the class
that I come from”, implies that no one should be ashamed
of the social class they are born into.
Belfast Confetti is about the differences between religious
beliefs which often lead to disagreements and riots. The
poet pays special attention to the extreme confusion and
distress that everyday people are exposed to in riots held
in the name of peaceful religions.
COMPARISON [Imagery]
The use of Imagery in both the poems differs from each other.
In The Class Game, the main use of imagery is to compare the individuals
from different classes and their daily routines. For example, “or is it because
my hands are stained with toil/instead of soft lily-white with perfume and oil”.
This sentence compares the hands of a working class individual [assumed to
be the poet] with those of someone from an upper-class background.
Belfast Confetti, on the other hand, uses imagery to create a real-life situation
of the riots. It intends to use the images to create similar feelings between
those stuck in the riots and the reader. In order to achieve this, the poet uses
punctuations throughout the poem, for example the first line of the poem
which says “Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation
marks”. This image has a literal meaning which is the rioters throwing shrapnel
at he riot police, but the implicit meaning is that of the alarm caused to the
people who were unwillingly present at the site, by this sudden change of
atmosphere.
COMPARISON [Language]
The language used in both the poems is very different.
The Class Game uses a lot of dialect and jargon such as
the use of the word “me” instead of “my” and the use of
“Tara” instead of “Bye Mummy dear”. This is intended to
make it obvious from the start that the narrator of the
poem is of a lower social class as his language differs
greatly from the proper English which would be used by
the upper-class individuals.
Belfast Confetti, on the other hand, uses perfect English
with a large number of metaphors like “it was raining
exclamation marks”. The use of metaphors is intended to
make the reader uneasy and feel the same panic that the
poet was feeling through the riot that he was stuck in.
COMPARISON [Effect]
The effect on the reader of both the poems is exactly the same as it makes
the people question their views and prejudices.
The Class Game uses questions to directly address the reader and their
views on the differences between social classes amongst society. Questions
like “How can you tell what class I’m from?” and “Why do you care what
class I’m from?” make the reader feel the harsh truth of the prejudices
amongst society which they may have not been subjected to before.
Belfast Confetti uses punctuation marks as a method of structuring the
poem but also creating metaphorical imagery based on the real situation.
This is very unusual in a poem and will be picked up immediately by the
reader. When the poet says “It was raining exclamation marks”, he is
referring to the shrapnel being thrown at the police by the rioters, but
implicitly he is talking about the alarm and panic running through the
crowd and those who do not wish to be a part of it.
COMPARISON [Theme]
The theme of both the poems is exactly the same: Clashes and Collisions.
For Example:
The Class Game is about the clashes between different social classes and
how the people from the lower classes are nearly always treated as
inferior. The fact that the poet starts the poem by asking “How can you
tell what class I’m from?” is evidence of the fact that she has been
subjected to class-based prejudice and therefore feels the need to
question the aspects of her life which are elements proving her to be of a
certain [assumingly lower] social class.
Belfast Confetti has the theme of Clashes and Collisions quite explicitly as
the actual poem is an account of a riot hat happened in 1969. The clash
is taking place between the riot police, the rioters and the bystanders
who have been unwillingly pulled into the chaos.