The narrator of the poem initially adopts a cold, scientific voice to describe the physical dimensions and immediate damage of a bomb. As the human toll of the blast becomes apparent, the speaker shifts from recounting numbers to expressing deep sorrow. He eventually refuses to speak of the most painful consequences directly, turning instead to philosophical questions about suffering and human existence.

A victim who loses her life to the bomb. Because she comes from another town, her burial over a hundred kilometers away from the explosion physically enlarges the radius of the tragedy. Her death triggers a chain reaction of grief that spreads across the globe.

A man living far away from the site of the explosion who weeps over the death of the young woman. His grief illustrates how the consequences of a localized attack ripple outward to affect individuals across vast geographic distances.

Children who lose their parents to the explosion. The speaker views their sorrow as so profound that it escapes human language. Their weeping extends the circle of pain upward toward the heavens.

A divine figure whose "seat" receives the sorrowful cries of the orphaned children. The poem introduces this figure to question how human violence and suffering can exist, ending with an image of an infinite circle entirely devoid of this divine presence.