Paraphrasing
The day the explosion happened / there was a foreboding of an accident / and the sun was the foreteller. Men were coming to tunnels / coughing and smoking / and breaking the silence. They were going through fields / and one of them found lark’s eggs / and put them back. The men had beards and wore moleskin / they were talking and laughing / as they came down the tunnel entrance. / The ground shook at noon; and / cows stopped chewing; / and the sun became dim. / The funeral is taking place and they / dead are meeting with God / but we will see them again – / As plain as the chapters of Bible / it was said that / their wives saw them for a moment / as if heroes / were coming down from the sun / and continuing the cycle.
Analysis
The speaker of the poem is writing about the accident. Unlike the majority of poems which are written in a four-line style, “The Explosion” employs a three-line approach. It has a slower rhythm to indicate that the author is sad about the event. The poem’s central topic is the explosion which happened in a coal mine. “At noon there came a tremor; cows / Stopped chewing for a second;” tells the readers that the blast happened underground (Larkin). The ground shook and the cows which were consuming grass stopped for a moment. Closer to the end of the poem, the author indicates the cyclical nature of the world. The last line, “One showing the eggs unbroken,” means that new life is born on the Earth as others continue their journey in the heavens (Larkin). Therefore, the poem has sad parts, but it also attempts to express optimism.
Work Cited
Larkin, Philip. “The Explosion.” AllPoetry, 2020. Web.