August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945 by Alison Fell
In the Enola Gay
five minutes before impact
he whistles a dry tune
Later he will say
that the whole blooming sky
went up like an apricot ice.
Later he will laugh and tremble
at such a surrender, for the eye
of his belly saw Marilyn’s skirts
fly over her head for ever
On the river bank,
bees drizzle over
hot white rhododendrons
Later she will walk
the dust, a scarlet girl
with her whole stripped skin
at her heel, stuck like an old
shoe sole or mermaid’s tail
Later she will lie down
in the flecked black ash
where the people are become
as lizards or salamanders
and, blinded, she will complain
Mother you are late. So late
Later in dreams he will look
down shrieking and see
ladybirds
ladybirds
Last year, 11y2 and 11×2 studied August 6, 1945 for their own Poetry Controlled Assessment. To download some extremely useful notes from 11y2 and Miss Kirsopp, click here:
Useful Links:
- Meanings, background and ideas here – a really useful site, full of detail and information for both teachers and students to use
- Hellesden High School Resources – lots of information and relevant links to the poem
- Facts about the Atomic Bomb and its devestating effects here
Collection B: Clashes and Collisions 
[…] HomeThe TaskWhat is ‘Clashes and Collisions’?Base DetailsAugust 6, 1945Parade’s End […]
Some ideas i haven’t read…
‘The eye of his belly’ makes me think about the cautionary saying ‘your eyes are bigger that your stomach,’ that a parent might say to a child. It symbolises greed, or wanting more than you need and is the crux of the poem for me – man’s yearning to always want more, and ‘later,’ this yearning, almost sexual desire for more (as symbolised by Marilyn’s skirt) leads to his downfall, pictured at the end of the poem.
As for the end of the poem, in class last week we decided the nursery rhyme ‘ladybirds ladybirds’ at the end of the poem had a lullaby effect, and was a common, dramatic device used to create an eerie feeling, that haunts the reader long after the poem has been read and lingers like a bad dream, which of course, is what the pilot is coping with. We can also imagine the pilot singing to himself in bed, as comfort, as a way to deal with post traumatic stress syndrome, when he has finally confronted ‘the eye of his belly’ – his greedy nature. Juxtaposition of something as sweet as a nursery song with trauma is almost an oxymoron, or at least a strong clash between a corrupted adulthood and an innocent childhood.
I wrote these comments because i enjoyed the class last Tuesday and was very stimulated by what Miss Jarvis was saying and was enthused by the general interest of the students. What a great poem!
Good Luck,
Miss Morrison
Many thanks for the comments! I was unsure about the phrase myself, but one student in 11y8 came up with the idea that the belly it refers to is that of the plane, and that the ‘eye’ would be the opening for the bomb. I think it conjures up the idea that the pilot and the plane become one and the same; personifying the plane in the process and – as you say – hinting at this idea of greed or yearning for a thrill. I’m glad that you enjoyed it so much! Miss Jarvis
Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945, threatening Japan with “prompt and utter destruction”. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum, and two nuclear weapons developed by the Manhattan Project were deployed. Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, followed by the Fat Man over Nagasaki on 9 August.
Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefecture health department estimated that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness.
here is what the bomb that was dropped on hiroshima would look like if it was dropped on our school…http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3536/littleboy.png