The Diameter of the Bomb

The tone in the first five lines is clinical and detached, and the language is straightforward and without embellishment. This emphasizes that the kind of measurement being discussed in the poem’s first five lines is only the mathematical type, discussing the quantitative and scientific characteristics of the bomb. The first line highlights the bomb’s small size by describing it in centimeters; even its effective range is only a few meters, which makes the bomb sound somewhat mundane and even harmless. There is only one small dramatic gesture that alludes to the poem’s later shift in perspective, which is the pause created by the hyphen that comes before “seven meters” (Line 3). This pause can be seen as a hesitation on the part of the poet, or as a moment of emphasis, calling attention to the moment and contributing to a mounting sense of tension. The pause here foreshadows that the poet will disprove his assertion by showing that the bomb’s “effective range” (Line 2) is far greater than the several meters of its directly targeted area.

In addition, the poet’s use of shorter lines contributes to the sense of simplicity and clarity, as well as employing