Question

critical appreciation of "A Doctor's Journal Entry for August 6, 1945" by Vikram Seth

Answer 1

The poem, A Doctor's Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 is written in the form of a journal entry. It gives a vivid picture of the people's feelings and reaction to the bombing of the city of Hiroshima in 1945. Vikram Seth has used a prose-pattern, images, epithets, humour, wit and irony in the poem. It is a colloquial, clipped style. It is in the form of a narration by a bomb survivor.

The poet uses exaggeration to highlight the situation - 'The roof, the walls, and, as it seemed the world collapsed in timber and debris, dust swirled around me.'

He creates an atmosphere of horror, fear and panic - 'It took some time for me to understand ..... shuffled in blank parade.'

He personifies loneliness to describe the helplessness of the survivors - 'What choice had we ...... my body crept behind.'

The poem is symbolic also.

Answer 2

This poem by Vikram Seth very thoughtfully describes the horrific accounts of the bombings of Hiroshima in 1945 in the form of a journal entry by a doctor for maintaining records. These entries describes in details the panic stricken lives of the inhabitants of Hiroshima, who were taken aback when they were bombarded all of  sudden.
The style of writing this poem is ingenious and doesn't have any rhyme scheme and other poetic devices. It is rather colloquial, which means language used in daily life, and is also clipped. It has been described continuously, recording the daily events of the bombings, hence is not written in a complicated style.
In the poem one can see the account of all the bombings in the city.  The poet uses Hyperbole (exaggeration) to describe all the accounts.  "The roof, the walls,and, as it seemed the world, collapsed in timber and debris, dust swirled around me.
And the atmosphere of horror and panic is created in many lines in the poem.