The Explosion

Page 1

On the day of the explosion

Shadows pointed towards the pithead:

In thesun the slagheap slept.

Down the lane came men in pitboots

Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke

Shouldering off the freshened silence.

One chased after rabbits; lost them;

Came back with a nest of lark's eggs;

Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.

So they passed in beards and moleskins

Fathers brothers nicknames laughter

Through the tall gates standing open.

At noon there came a tremor; cows

Stopped chewing for a second; sun

Scarfed as in a heat-haze dimmed.

The dead go on before us they

Are sitting in God's house in comfort

We shall see them face to face--

plian as lettering in the chapels

It was said and for a second

Wives saw men of the explosion

Larger than in life they managed--

Gold as on a coin or walking

Somehow from the sun towards them

One showing the eggs unbroken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMxncSFoR0 (Embed)

change/things ending

innocence -MCMXIV

MCMXIV - macroview

The Explosion - microview

Poignant stanza - we know that the eggs will never be collected (title is the explosion)

cornerstone of this community is the Church.

A) Bad Omen

'On the day of the explosion

Shadows pointed towards the pithead'

B) Peace to be disrupted

'In the sun the slagheap slept' (sibilance)

C) Unromanticised

'Down the lane came men in pitboots

Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke

Shouldering off the freshened silence'

D) Innocence of youth

'One chased after rabbits; lost them;

Came back with a nest full of lark's eggs;

Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.'

E) Brevity / uncertainty of life

'lodged them in the grasses'

(But they were never recovered'

'At noon there came a tremor; cows stopped chewing for a second; sun,

Scarfed as in a heat haze, dimmed'

F) Community

'Fathers, brothers, nicknames, laughter'

G) Gates of heaven/hell

'Through the tall gates standing open'

H) Understated catastrophe

'At noon, there came a tremor; cows

Stopped chewing for a second; sun

Scarfed as in a heat haze, dimmed'

I) Light of life quenched

''... sun

Scarfed as in a heat haze dimmed'

J) Simile

'Scarfed as in a heat haze'

K) Frigility of life

Symbol of the eggs - breakable/fragile

'At noon, there came a tremor; cows

Stopped chewing for a second; sun

Scarfed as in a heat haze, dimmed'

L) Mass - importance of ritual - solace

'The dead go on before us, they

Are sitting in God's house in comfort,

We shall see the face to face -'

'Plain as lettering in the chapels

It was said, and for a second

Wives saw men of the explosion'

M) Belief

'The dead go on before us, they

Are sitting in God's house in comfort,

We shall see them face to face - '

'Plain as lettering in the chapels

It was said, and for a second

Wives saw men of the explosion'

'Larger than in life they managed -

Gold as on a coin, or walking

Somehow from the sun towards them'

N) Things go on - symbolism

'One showing the eggs unbroken.'

O) Turning to ritual

'The dead go on before us, they

Are sitting in God's house in comfort,

We shall see them face to face - '

'Plain as lettering in the chapels

It was said, and for a second

Wives saw men of the explosion'

'Larger than in life they managed -

Gold as on a coin, or walking

Somehow from the sun towards them'

Notes

Video