Diameter Of The Bomb Poem Summary

Yehuda Amichai’s poem, The Diameter of the Bomb, focuses on the impact war has on humanity. On a more complex level, the poem illustrates how the desensitization of war and its results drive the world into hopelessness. Amichai begins his poem using a statistical analysis of the bomb. The bomb begins as a mechanical and emotionless object that is represented as holding limited capacity for destruction. It is described as having a thirty centimeter diameter and an effective range of about seven meters. The effects of the bomb seem miniscule. The circle starts out only consisting of “four dead and eleven wounded”. Because the circle is small, the effect is insignificant. By Amichai beginning his poem in a statistical analysis it conveys how the deaths in war are desensitized. Four deaths and eleven wounded becomes insignificant
The circle begins as only thirty centimeters to becoming a circle that reaches out to God. As the circle increases so does the lose of hope. After the destruction of cities and lives the world realizes that the destruction has no end. It does not stop after “four dead and eleven wounded”. It does not stop after the “solitary man mourning her death at the distant shores of a country far across the sea”. It does not stop until it reaches “the throne of God and beyond” and even then it continues forever. Because the pain is everlasting, the world begins to think there is no hope and the circle has no end and no God. Being immersed in a world where violence surrounds everything causes its bearers to lose hope. The circle is eternal and the carnage of war is never-ending. These techniques Amichai uses such as the statistical analysis of the bomb’s destruction, a detached tone, and increasing the size of the “circle” conveys how once violence becomes the normal way of life and no one is appalled by war, hope is