Explosion.

Vivimarie VanderPoorten is a Sri Lankan poet. She is of Belgian and Sinhala ancestry and
grew up in Kurunegala. She won the 2007 Gratiaen Prize. She was also awarded the 2009
SAARC Poetry Award in Delhi.

Explosion deals with the central bank bombing which was carried out by the LTTE on
January 31st, 1996, in the city of Colombo, which killed nearly 91 and injured thousands. It
was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the ethnic conflict, where a truck, containing
explosives crashed through the main gate of the Central Bank, and a suicide bomber
detonated the bomb which destroyed the bank and damaged buildings nearby. The poem
visualizes the devastating panorama aftermath.

Title: The title ‘explosion’ refers to the bomb blast. It promptly creates an image of a blast
with the deafening sound of explosion.

Form: free verse

Rhythm: short lines, clipped sentences generates a quick pace while reading the poem.

Tone: sympathetic, critical and ironical

Theme: Suffering of the innocent due to terrorism, destructive nature of modern warfare,
uncertainty of life.

Narration: Third person point of view, the poet is an observer and reporter of the incident.

Main technique: imagery

Clipped, stop sentences: The clipped and stop sentences carry emotions, like the poet finds
it difficult to continue describing the tragedy.

Personification: time staggered (Time is crippled like it cannot function by itself, undertaken
by the power of the bomb)

Auditory imagery: sound of workday morning, cawing of the crows, Boom (together they
create a disturbing noise, unpleasant and hoarse)

Metaphor: Prism of fire and fury (the destructive explosion of the bomb)

Visual imagery: Prism of fire and fury (Prism can breakdown reflections into several parts,
just like if you put a petal into a prism, you can see a number of flowers. The magnitude of
the fire and the commotion is vividly described with one single imagery.)

Poet introduces the how the explosion started step by step slowly and reaches its climax
with the single line ‘Boom.’ It mingles with the surrounding noises and emerges like a
gigantic forceful fire. Time freezes at the moment and the bomb surmounts all the noises in
the city when it unleashed its radiation crushing the physical things around its perimeter.

Clipped, stop lines: generate a quick pace to the poem.

Simile: hands were severed like cucumbers (hands are split open like a split open cucumber
showing the bone like cucumber seeds which definitely creates a disturbing image)

Visual imagery: women in sari held their eyeball in their palms, blood spattered the streets

Passive structure: Passivity of ordinary civilians before the modern warfare.

The poet then focuses on the victims of the explosion who has no connection to the war
ongoing in the country. Most of them are ordinary civilians like retired wage earners, working
women, and pedestrian sellers like vegetable sellers. The power of the bomb is
overwhelming and the result is disturbing to the eyes of any human being: People are dead,
blinded and crushed under the fallen debris; some were seriously injured and some were
suffering from temporary memory loss. Women in sari holding their eyeballs in palms and a
vegetable seller whose hands were severed like cucumbers visualize the severity of the
attack and the suffering of the victims. The scenery is a graphical and pathetic example of
the suffering of innocent civilians and the inhumanity associated on the face of a warfare.

Visual imagery: broken window, a damaged car, dead driver

Auditory imagery: radio blared, a man’s pleasant voice announced

Irony: insurance cannot save people from disasters/ Life is uncertain to the people who live
in a war-torn country.

Juxtaposition: The victim vs the society: The society who lead their ordinary life despite
caring what is going on the country. (the dead driver vs the pleasant voice in the radio)

Poet then focuses on a single scene where a damaged vehicle with a dead driver. The radio
is still functioning broadcasting an advertisement on insurance policies. Vanderpoorten may
be critical about the countrymen who enjoy their lives relatively normal where some people
in the very country suffer from ill-effects of war. The message of the insurance company is
ironic - as nobody can protect people from these kind of terrorist attacks. If further shows the
uncertainty of the lives of people who live in a war-torn nation.

Vivimarie Vanderpooten’s report on one of the tragic incidents occurred in Sri Lanka when
there had been a long civil war between the Sri Lankan government vs LTTE terrorists. She
shows the suffering and vulnerability of civilians when there is an ongoing war in a country.
War can destroy the lives of people, the economy of a country and most pathetically the
humanity. Therefore, war is not an answer for any question as war can only give suffering to
mankind. What is your idea? Please let us know your points of views on the poem. Share the
post if you find it useful.