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
Alison Fell was born in 1944 at Dumfries and was
educated in Dumfries before moving to Edinburgh Art
College. She published poetry and fiction for adults and
children. She moved to London in 1970 where she co
founded the women's street theatre group.
The poem refers to the Enola Gay which is the plane
which dropped the bombs. The whole poem is written as if
someone was on it. It is referring to the pilot who dropped
the bombs, and how menacing and horrible he is. It is
referring to him as if he doesn’t care about it which makes
him seem even worse e.g. “He whistles a dry tune”.
The writer uses lots of colours in the poem to give the
reader the image of the explosion before and after. How
the explosion goes from tropical bright colours to dark
ash like colours. It refers to the ground as “ladybirds”
because the only colours are the red blood and the ash
from the explosion which is really effective on the reader.
The Enola Gay is named after the pilots mother and
the bomb is called the little boy. On the ground there
is a blind girl looking for her mother who just got
blown up by the bomb which is horrible. This tries to
make the poem seem more personal.
“Where the people are become as lizards or
salamanders” this shows how the people are joining
the fire. The ancient idea that salamanders can live in
fire. This is describing how the frying humans blend in
with the fire. Which is a really effective piece of
imagery.
“Girl with her whole stripped skin at her heel, stuck
like an old shoe sole or a mermaids tail” which is a
very effective comparison for the imagery of the
injuries. You can really imagine this image he is
trying to get across to the reader.
The poem is trying to aware people of the horrors of
Hiroshima and the slaughter that happened on that day.
The writer is trying to make the reader feel what the
people did when they were going through this e.g.
watching their families die. How it scared them for life
and the fact that they will never have a day where they
don’t think about what happened to them. That some of
people who survived will never be able to walk again.
These are the horrible images the writer is trying to get
across. We found it a very effective poem which uses a
lot of imagery and emotive language.