Symbolism
"The grassington mandala" and "After the stealth bomber"
The grassington mandalaMy first symbol is a serpent. The word serpent is used two times. They are "and rainbow-serpent aureoles;" and "another serpent bites its tail." The serpent biting it tail is supposed to represent the life cycle in the eyes of a Buddhist. An aureoles is the circle you see around angles, Jesus', and Mary's heads to show that they are holy. I think the two are related by afterlife. You see Buddhist believe in reincarnation and only holy people have aureloes. So maybe its supposed to imply that they keep reincarnating until they have reached a pure and holy soul. My second symbol is sand. The poem says "rebuild their Buddha's house in sand, a sand once ground from precious stones;" Well before that it talks about an actual historic time where the Taliban went out and destroyed the Buddhist community. I think its saying they now have to take what is left of their precious community.
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After the stealth bomberBomb, bombs are a central and important topic in the poem. It is the center of the problem in the poem and it's aftermath is referred to several times throughout. Then there is fire, Fire causes loss and along with ash it is mentioned multiple times and referenced throughout the poem. Fire and bomb also have similarities and one can cause the other.
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