The Speaker

The speaker can be understood as a projection of the poet, though the reader may also see them as a fictional character or an extension of themselves. As the narrative point of view shifts throughout the poem, it may also be read as multiple narrators or multiple levels of consciousness in one narrator. The only biographical clue given in the text is that the speaker is a parent, likely a mother. The speaker reflects on the senseless destruction and what it means in the wider world.

The Vandals

The two vandals are the characters who open the poem, though they’re never named or explored. Their facelessness presents them as an objective, impersonal evil, similar to a natural disaster. The only humanity they’re given is in the personification of their weapon: “The wind blunts the saw’s rage” (Line 8). In spite of this objectivity, it’s...