The Diameter of the Bomb

War, and anti-war poems, already had a long tradition in global literature when this poem was written, but Amichai was innovative in his ability to take ancient themes and make them uniquely relevant to the modern world’s events and its catastrophic violence. He was Israel’s most famous poet; his poetry contains Biblical references in a modern, clean style reminiscent of mid-20th century American and British poets such as Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes, who he worked with on translations of his works. The influence of his contemporaries is felt especially in the way that he uses a non-ornate, direct language to convey mood and atmosphere. His metaphors operate on many levels, and in this particular poem the metaphor of the circle of suffering brought about by war is especially haunting. Amichai took contemporary situations and everyday events and revealed deeper facets of these events by presenting them through a mythological and spiritual lens. This poem is one of Amichai’s most famous poems, and it is often read in public situations as a call for peace.