Explosion talks about the painful event of the bomb attack by the LTTE the rebel movement on the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on 31st January 1996. The attack was on 31st January 1996, a disastrous attack by the LTTE rebels on a capital building killing over 80 people and a thousand were injured.
Overview of the Poem
The title ‘Explosion’ refers to the bomb blast. It promptly creates an image of a blast with the deafening sound of the explosion. The poem is written in free verse, where short lines and clipped sentences generate a quick pace while reading. The tone is sympathetic, critical and ironical, focusing on the theme of suffering of the innocent due to terrorism, the destructive nature of modern warfare, and the uncertainty of life. Narrated from a third-person point of view, the poet acts as an observer and reporter using imagery as the main technique.
Main Theme: The Horror and Commercialization of War
One of the deadliest attacks carried out in Colombo during the 30-year war was the bombing of the Central Bank. On 31, January 1996 at around 10.45 -11 am, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the central nervous system of the country’s economy, was destroyed by a massive bomb explosion triggered by the LTTE. The blast killed at least 91 people (41 from the Central bank) and injured 1,400 others.
In this poem, Vivimarie presents the scenario from the point of view of an eyewitness. Most victims were innocent civilians and bank employees. The poet uses only two words to show the speed at which they lost their lives: "lives ended". What follows is a graphic description of the gory scene with horrific images of severed hands and dislocated eyeballs.
Detailed Stanza Analysis
Stanza 1: The Descent into Fury
The poem starts with a description of the tragic event step by step. The day started with new hopes for all in January. But the truck loaded with explosives drove into the Central Bank like a human hunter. The BOOM made even the cawing of the crows stopped suddenly; all became fire and fury. Auditory images bring out the unimaginable attack. “Time staggered” personifies crippled time, while “Prism of fire and fury” metaphorically says the disastrous nature of the explosion.
Stanza 2: The Pathos of the Innocent
This stanza reveals the painful memory of the explosion. Lives ended; retired wage earners collecting provident funds became ash, crushed under brick and glass. The vegetable seller lost his hands—butchered like pieces of cucumber. A woman in a saree held her eyeballs in her palms. The visual images of blood spattering the street allow readers to feel the severity and the futility of war which is so cruel and devastating. The description is point-blank to give the message.
Stanza 3: The Irony of the Blaring Radio
The last stanza takes us to a damaged car where the dead driver lies lifeless. Inside, the radio blares an advertisement: "insurance protects them all". This is a perfect use of irony. Insurance cannot protect anyone when there is no guarantee for innocent people in a war-torn country. The contrast between the dead driver and the pleasant voice on the radio is an effective auditory image.
The poet highlights the irony that insurance protects only after damage and death, which is irreversible. This reminds us of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage," an itinerant trader who lives off war. Like Mother Courage, for some people, war is certainly a business, as Vivimarie suggests through the radio commercial interrupting the devastation.
About the Writer: Vivimarie Vanderpoorten
- Origins: Born in Kandy, brought up in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.
- Academic: BA from Kelaniya; MA and PhD from the University of Ulster, UK.
- Works: "Nothing Prepares You" (2007) and "Stitch Your Eyelids Shut" (2010).
- Recognition: Winner of the Gratiaen Prize (2007) and SAARC Poetry Award (2009).
- Influences: Influenced by Maya Angelou and Kamala Das; deals with feminism and Civil War effects.
Final Thoughts and Critical Reflection
The violence depicted stands out against the calm of Colombo where a single “boom” emanated a “prism of fire and fury”: a mirror of the rage of several generations’ suppression. The recurrence of definitive words with an echo of finality such as “ended”, “blinded”, “crushed”, “severed”, and “splattered” bring on how violence inscribes itself on its victims’ bodies.
Vanderpoorten’s choice of phrase – such as “erasing memory” – feeds into the belief that death has the power to “[eradicate] memory”. However, the victims of this trauma become history-makers whereby their bodies, through memory, create witnesses out of them.
Conclusion
It is a free-verse poem. All can understand and feel the pain. The title moves the readers to go to the next lines with wounded minds. The poem brings out the pain of the small island torn by war for thirty years. War is futile; it does nothing but destruction to the nation, killing peace and happiness. War is not the solution; it only gives pain and suffering to mankind.
Related Analysis
Overview of the Poem Explosion
Title: The title ‘explosion’ refers to the bomb blast. It promptly creates an image of a blast with the deafening sound of the explosion.
Form: free verse
Rhythm: short lines and clipped sentences generate a quick pace while reading the poem.
Tone: sympathetic, critical and ironical
Theme: Suffering of the innocent due to terrorism, the destructive nature of modern warfare, and the uncertainty of life.
Narration: Third person point of view, the poet is an observer and reporter of the incident.
Main technique: imagery
Main Theme of the Poem Explosion
The main theme of the poem is the horror and the destructive nature of the war and the commercialization of the war by the businessmen. One of the deadliest attacks carried out in Colombo during the 30-year war was the bombing of the Central Bank. On 31, January 1996 at around 10.45 -11 am, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the central nervous system of the country’s economy, was destroyed by a massive bomb explosion triggered by the LTTE. The blast killed at least 91 people (41 from the Central bank) and injured 1,400 others.
In this poem, Vivimarie presents the scenario from the point of view of an eyewitness of the event. Most of the victims were innocent civilians and bank employees who were engaged in their day-to-day activities. Some of them died on the spot while some were critically injured. It took only a split second to cause all this havoc. The poet uses only two words to show the speed at which they lost their lives: "lives ended". This suggests powerfully both the fragility of lives as well as the horror of the war. What follows is a graphic description of the gory scene with horrific images of severed hands and dislocated eyeballs. In this way, the poet highlights the suffering of innocent civilians due to the war.
The last stanza takes on a new turn with the radio blaring on a commercial break announcing an advertisement about insurance. According to the advertisement "big or small, insurance protects them all". The poet seems to highlight the irony that insurance protects them only after the damage and death which is irreversible. Insurance, as an industry, thrives on the people's fear of death and various other perils to which they are liable.
The war situation might offer the insurers a fertile ground to promote their business and this reminds me of Bertolt Brecht's epic play which is set during the Thirty Years' War in Germany. The play follows Anna Fierling – "Mother Courage" – an itinerant trader, as she pulls her wagon of wares and her children through the blood and carnage of Europe's religious wars. Mother Courage lives off the war, using her trade to feed her children.
In some scenes, Mother Courage appears to recognize the commercial character of warfare but she is unable to change her behaviour, even after she has lost all her children to the war. For some people, therefore, war is certainly a business as Vivimarie has suggested in this poem.
About the Writer: Vivimarie Vanderpoorten
Vivimarie Vanderpoorten is a Sri Lankan poet. She was born in Kandy and brought up in Kurunegala. She is a BA graduate from the University of Kelaniya and received her MA and PhD from the University of Ulster, UK. She is working as a senior lecturer in English literature at the Open University of Sri Lanka.
Her first work “Nothing Prepares You” was published in 2007. Her second work (2010) collection of poems, “Stitch Your Eyelids Shut” deals with feminism and the effects of the Civil War. She made her opinion of the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in the form of a poem at the Galle Literary Festival in 2011. She was influenced by Maya Angelou and Kamala Das. Her work has been translated into many languages such as Spanish, Sinhalese and Swedish. Her works have been published in India and UK. She won the Gratiaen Prize in 2007 and SAARC Poetry Award in 2009.
Detail Analysis of the Poem Explosion
Analysis of Stanza 1
The poem starts with a description of the tragic event step by step. The day started with new hopes for all in January. But the truck loaded with explosives drove into the Central Bank like a human hunter. The day was quite busy with the workload in the bank. But the BOOM made even the cawing of the crows stopped suddenly for a minute all became fire and fury. There is nothing except smoke and fire.
The sound of the explosives silenced and froze that day. Each sentence tries to describe the tragedy but the poet finds it difficult to express his emotions. The auditory images are used to bring out the unimaginable attack and the aftermath of the attack The sound of work in day morning brings the busy day of the office. The cawing of the crows and the Boom sound is unpleasant noises.
“Time staggered” personifies crippled time which could not move by itself, for it has been controlled by terrorism. “Prism of fire and fury” metaphorically says the disastrous nature of the explosion. Everything the poet introduces in the first stanza brings visual images to the readers. “On the day the truckload of explosives Drove into the central bank,” “prism of fire and fury”
Analysis of Stanza 2
The stanza reveals the painful memory of the explosion. Lives ended, many died, and many innocent people lost their lives physically and mentally. Many people lost their vision due to the explosion. The poet wants to say the pathetic condition of that day when the common people, the retired wage earners were collecting their provident funds. They were all in a minute and became ash. They were crushed under the brick and glass.
The vegetable seller lost his hands, they were butchered like the pieces of cucumber. The woman in the saree was holding her eyeballs in their palms and the blood covered the streets. These painful memories could not be erased. Never healing wounds. The scars are still there and the pain is a lot. The effect of the bomb was so devastating. The poet uses various ways to express the pain of the victims.
The visual images of “Women in saree held their eyeball in their palms”,” blood spattered the street”, and “and the vegetable seller’s Hands were severed like cucumbers,” the readers could feel the severity of the attack and how only the innocent people were killed with no reason, the poet perfectly conveys the message of the futility of war which could be so cruel and devastating.
The brutal scene is so overwhelming, and the description never going to make a person see the poetical techniques inside each word and line. The description is point-blank to give the message.
Analysis of Stanza 3
The last stanza again expresses the outcome of the brutal attack on innocent civilians.The description takes the readers to see the damaged car which the dead driver lying inside lifeless. But the radio inside the car broadcasts an advertisement on insurance policies. The advertisement says “insurance protects them all” the poet has used irony in a perfect situation. Insurance cannot protects anyone when there is no guarantee for innocent people in such a war-torn country.
Again the visual images and auditory images play a vital role in this stanza. A broken window, a damaged car, and the dead driver take us to the location. The influence of the visual images was so effective. And the auditory sounds such as “radio blared, a man’s pleasant voice announced. Very effective irony. The contrast effect could be felt in the dead driver and the pleasant voice.
Final Thoughts of the Poem Explosion
The violence depicted in the poem stands out against the calm and quiet of Colombo where a single “boom” emanated a “prism of fire and fury”: a mirror of the rage of several generations’ suppression and injustice, like a ticking bomb that awaits explosion, the Tamil community seems to have borne post-independence. This cataclysmic explosion results in the kind of violence vividly portrayed in the poem.
The recurrence of definitive words with an echo of finality such as “ended”, “blinded”, “crushed”, “severed”, and “splattered” bring on how violence inscribes itself on its victims’ bodies and lives. The poem shares the impression of a mass of victims whose lives are either snuffed out or irrevocably mutilated in a split second of a long-drawn, entrenched conflict. The explosion is also indicated to draw into a political equation a host of persons – among them, retired wage earners, vegetable sellers, and random sari-clad women – who, on a normal day, wouldn’t have necessarily been interested in the political sphere or ethnic differences.
Vanderpoorten’s choice of phrase – such as “erasing memory” – generates a particular interest as she feeds into the belief that death has the power to “[eradicate] memory”. However, I argue that the victims of this violence and trauma become history-makers whereby their bodies, through memory, create witnesses out of them.
The tone of the poem and the choice of words in describing the explosion’s aftermath project a deep callousness of those who are removed from the violence. Vanderpoorten subtly critiques the grand promises of the commercial monoliths that promise to protect and shield against destinies they are powerless to confront let alone protect against, as the voice on the radio interrupts the picture of total devastation, loss, and death by promising to protect on equal terms the “big” and the “small”. The irony of this statement marks the failure on the part of those who are removed from this moment in history – persons who are above politics and beyond history – to comprehend the complexities surrounding and brought on by the explosion.
Conclusion
It is a free-verse poem. All can understand and feel the pain. The title moves the readers to go to the next lines with wounded minds. It creates the image of blasting in the mind. The short lines with ironic usage of words create a sad tone in the poem. The poem thus brings out the pain of the small island. It was torn by war for the past thirty years. The poet shows the suffering of the civilians. War is futile. It does nothing but destruction to the nation. It kills the peace and happiness of the people. Who benefits? War is not the solution. War only gives pain and suffering to mankind.
