Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Jack Hirschman’s "Tornado" is a vivid, surreal depiction of the aftermath of a devastating storm, blending rural imagery with mythic undertones. The poem captures the chaotic destruction left in the tornado’s wake while imbuing it with a sense of wonder and dark poetry. The language is raw, direct, and evocative, bringing forth both the literal and metaphorical power of the storm.

The poem opens with shambles blown, immediately immersing the reader in a scene of wreckage. The phrase blown pages of a Gideon suggests that a Bible, commonly found in hotel rooms and homes, has been torn apart and scattered—an image of disorientation and perhaps divine indifference in the face of nature’s fury. Religion, often a source of comfort in disaster, is reduced to scattered fragments.

A farmer with a pitchfork steps up to the microphone to offer his account. His voice is the voice of the common man, one who labors on the land and now tries to make sense of its destruction. He describes the tornado as a huge Black arm, personifying it as a menacing, almost sentient force, grizzly, on a binge. The choice of words evokes a dangerous, uncontrolled beast, reinforcing the storm’s almost supernatural quality. The tabletop plain suggests the flat, open landscape of the Midwest, a region frequently battered by tornadoes. The phrase on a binge gives the storm the character of an intoxicated, reckless destroyer, further humanizing its destructive nature.

The farmer’s wife is introduced next, positioned at a distance, pecking at the wreckage of a moviehouse fallen out of the sky, for pans. Her actions seem almost absurd, yet deeply practical—she searches through the ruins for something useful. The mention of a moviehouse that has fallen out of the sky injects a surreal quality, as if the storm has ripped apart not just buildings but entire cultural institutions, flinging them across the land. The irony here is sharp: the glamour and escapism of cinema have been unceremoniously dropped into a field, reduced to rubble, yet the wife is simply concerned with recovering everyday necessities.

The poem then shifts to a child, agog, full of wide-eyed wonder rather than fear. He dances on shingles, leaping from tree to tree, his blond crop fluttering, embodying a spirit of youthful excitement rather than despair. His perspective is strikingly different from that of the adults. Where they see loss and destruction, he sees adventure. His exclamations to the buried farmboys suggest that he is trying to share his enthusiasm, as if the storm has awakened something thrilling rather than tragic in him.

The closing image of the swinging tail of the dragon that snapped completes the transformation of the tornado into a mythical beast. The tornado is no longer just a force of nature—it is a dragon, a violent, awe-inspiring creature that has swept through the land, leaving both terror and marvel in its wake. The storm's tail snapping suggests both its fury and its eventual passing, but the damage remains.

Hirschman’s "Tornado" operates on multiple levels. It is a stark portrayal of destruction, but also an exploration of perception—how disaster is interpreted differently by those who experience it. The farmer speaks in simple, almost biblical terms; his wife sifts through ruins with quiet resilience; the child sees excitement in the chaos. The poem does not just document destruction; it breathes life into the event, making the tornado a character in its own right. The blending of the everyday with the mythic elevates the scene, suggesting that even in the face of devastation, the imagination persists, transforming reality into something larger than life.

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