Analysis of Blessing

Analysis of Blessing

The structure of the stanzas is a metaphor for the water in the pump.

“The skin cracks like a pod. There is never enough water.”

This is the first stanza it is very short just as the water is only

dripping. As we go further the stanzas get longer “Sometimes, the

sudden rush of fortune… plastic buckets, frantic hands,”

This stanza shows the pipe bursting and water rushing out and in the

poem this is shown by the size of the stanza.

The sentence structure is also a metaphor for the water. “The skin

cracks like a pod. There is never enough water.”

Here the sentences are short just as they are short of water, where as

in the third stanza the sentences get longer. “From the huts, a

congregation: every man woman and child for streets around butt in,

with pots, brass, copper, aluminium, plastic buckets, frantic hands,”

This sentence is long as it shows the rush of water and the lack of

commas used in the first part emphasis the rush and the use of commas

in the second part quickens the pace.

The theme of the poem is showing the differences between the rich and

the poor. This is done by displayed by the lack of water for the poor.

“silver crashes to the ground”

To these people water is just as valuable as silver, to them water is

there wealth. Imtiaz Dharker uses silver as it is similar to water in

colour. This metaphor is also repeated when it says “polished to

perfection”

Many different poetic techniques have been used to create an image in

the readers head. “Imagine the drip of it, the small splash, echo in a

tin mug” the uses of onomatopoeias helps create a clear image.

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...ys it is’ echoes the line in the second stanza; in apartheid it

is what is NOT

said that is important i.e. people in power don’t like to talk about

the division of whites and black but it happens all the same.

The fourth stanza’s, ‘crushed ice white glass’ belongs to the rich

white

areas and contrasts with the fifth stanza’s ‘plastic table’s top’ that

is for the poor

black people. The line, ‘it’s in the bone’ suggests that this divide

is the result of

people’s bodies, their race and colour.

The sixth stanza again shows anger, a desire for, ‘a stone, a bomb’ to

break the glass and symbolically to end the separation between white

and black.

Yet the last line, ‘nothing’s changed’ suggests that the author has

little hope that

such an action would make things better. A pessimistic ending.