Analysing Blessing and An Old Woman`

Analysing Blessing and An Old Woman

Poetry from other Cultures

Question 2

Culture means the beliefs, traditions, and customs of people within a

society. Fundamental aspects of a culture are faith, values, and

history. People that share a culture also share its beliefs and ways

of life, which are different to others. Poetry is an effective way of

describing and exploring a culture, and events within it, because

certain aspects can be expressed with vivid descriptions, and imagery

that would be unsuitable in other types of text. Some cultures have

also used poetry as a form of storytelling, describing events that

happened to their ancestors, or even themselves. Poems can be concise

and leave some details to the imagination of the reader, therefore

they are easier to remember, and remain in the readers mind for

longer, which makes them more memorable.

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The two poems that I have chosen are 'Blessing' by Imtiaz Dharker and

'An Old Woman' written by Arun Kolatkar. I selected these poems

because they are both set in poor, third-world countries, and the

people within their communities value so strongly items that are take

for granted in developed countries. In 'An Old Woman', a beggar woman

is trying desperately to get 'a fifty paise coin', which is equivalent

to less than 1 pence, off a tourist. This amount of money is

frequently, and carelessly dropped on the floor without a second

glance, in countries such as our own, yet in India an elderly woman

needs this to survive. In 'Blessing' water is highly valued, and every

drop is precious because their community is so short of such a

substance. However, people in our, more developed, comm...

... middle of paper ...

...tent and happy with the life that they

live.

However, in 'An Old Woman' this impression is not given. The beggar

does not appear to be content with her way of life and is worn and

tired as a result of it. I think her discontentment is conveyed in

line 20-21 "bullet holes she has for eyes". I believe this, because

she has to hide her true feelings from the outside to prevent anyone

knowing what she really feels, and therefor her eyes seem to just

glaze over and hold no feelings. I think she does this so that she can

concentrate on trying to earn a living to stay alive, in doing this

though, all her feelings are trapped inside and she is unable to

overcome them. In doing this, it appears that she has no feelings and

is completely isolated from the rest of the community. This is

illustrated in line 29-30 "round the shatter-proof crone who stands

alone".