explosion
Explosion
Vivimarie
Vanderpoorten
On
the day the truckload
Of
explosives
Drove
into the central bank,
For
a long second
Time
staggered
All
sounds of a workday morning
In
the city
Even
the cawing of the crows
Merged
into a solitary
Boom
Prism
of fire and fury
Lives
ended
Eyes
were blinded
Retired
wage earners
Collecting
provident funds
Were
crushed
Under
brick and glass
The
nearby vegetable seller’s
Hands
were severed
Like
cucumbers,
Women
in sari
Held
their eyeballs in their palms
And
blood spattered
The
streets,
Erasing
memory.
Out
of the broken window
Of
a damaged car
Dead
driver
The
radio blared, unscathed
On
a commercial break
A
man’s plesant voice
Announced
That
big or small, insurance
Protects
them all.
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. Here second work
(2010) collection of poems, “Stitch Your Eyelids Shut” deals with feminism and
the effects of the Civil War. She made
her opinion to the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in the form of 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. Here works have
been published in India and UK. She won
the Gratiaen Prize in 2007 and SAARC Poetry Award in 2009.
Summary of the poem
The poem 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, in 1996. The
attack was on 31st January 1996, a disastrous attack by the LTTE
rebells on a capital building killing over a 80 people and thousand were
injured.
Detail analysis
Stanza 1
On
the day the truckload
Of
explosives
Drove
into the central bank,
For
a long second
Time
staggered
All
sounds of a workday morning
In
the city
Even
the cawing of the crows
Merged
into a solitary
Boom
Prism
of fire and fury
The
poem starts with the description of the tragic event step by step. The day started with a 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 workload in the bank. But the BOOM
made the even the cawing of the crows stopped suddenly for a minute all became
fire and fury. There is nothing except
the 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
Sound
of work day morning, brings the busy day of the office. Cawing of the crows and the Boom sound are
unpleasant noises. “Time staggered” personifies
crippled time which could not move by itself, for it has been controlled by the
terrorism.
“Prism
of fire and fury” metaphorically says the disastrous nature of the explosion. Everything
the poet introduces in the first stanza bring visual images to the readers.
“On
the day the truckload of explosives Drove into the central bank,” “prism of
fire and fury”
Stanza
2
Lives
ended
Eyes
were blinded
Retired
wage earners
Collecting
provident funds
Were
crushed
Under
brick and glass
The
nearby vegetable seller’s
Hands
were severed
Like
cucumbers,
Women
in sari
Held
their eyeballs in their palms
And
blood spattered
The
streets,
Erasing
memory.
The
stanza reveals the painful memory of the explosion. Lives ended, many died, 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 where the common people, the retired wage earners were collecting
their provident funds. They were all in
a minute became ash. They were crushed under
the brick and glass. The vegetable
seller lost his hands, they were butchered like the pieces of cucumbers. The
woman in 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
pains 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 “Women in saree held their eyeball in their palms”,”
blood spattered the street”, “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 to see the poetical techniques inside
each word and line. The description is
point blank to give the message.
Stanza
3
Out
of the broken window
Of
a damaged car
Dead
driver
The
radio blared, unscathed
On
a commercial break
A
man’s plesant voice
Announced
That
big or small, insurance
Protects
them all.
The
last stanza which again expresses the outcome of the brutal attack on the
innocent civilians. The description
takes the readers to see the damaged car which the dead drives lying inside
lifeless. But the radio inside the car
broadcasting an advertisement on insurance policies. The advertisement says “insurance protects
them all” the poet has used the irony
in a perfect situation. The insurance
cannot protects anyone when there is no grantee for the innocent people in such
a war torn country. Again the visual
images and auditory images play a vital role in this stanza. Broken window, a damaged car, and the dead
driver take us to the location. The influence of the visual images were 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.
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 wounding minds. It creates the image of blasting to the
mind. The short lines with ironical
usage of words create a sad tone to 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 the mankind.
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