Blessing Flashcards
Meaning
To remind the reader to appreciate water and things we take for granted
Structure
Cyclic - begins and ends with a sense of vulnerability
Written like a memory
- enjambment
- religious references
Themes
- Suffering
- appreciation
- desperation
suffering
‘Skin cracks like a pod’ - lack of water is so painful for them
‘There is never enough water’ - always suffering
appreciation
’ a small splach,echo in a tin mug, the voice of a kindly god’ - water is rare and divine . Melancholy
‘From huts a congregation’ - Congregations go to celebrate god and appreciate all he has done for them. The people celebrate the water
Title
means gods favour or protection. The pipe bursting was a gift from God.
Language features
- vivid imagery
- similie
- listing
Vivid imagery
’ skin cracks like a pod’ painful. breaking.desperation
‘frantic hands’ - desperation
‘ silver crashes to the ground’ water is precious
similie
‘cracks like a pod’ emphasises painful dryness creates bleakness and images of desolation
Desperation
‘frantic hands’ people are desperate to get a=enough water to last them even a little while. vulnerability
listing
- ‘buts in, with pots, brass, copper, aluminium,plastic buckets,frantic hands’
speeds up poem used to show desperation. slows pace
enjambment
‘frantic hands and naked children’
picks up pace of poem . shows joy and chaos of moment
religious references
‘congregation’
‘blessing sings’
‘voice of a kindly god’
to show sacred view of water in comparison to an important ritual
‘over their small bones’
Shows vulnerability of children
‘the sudden rush of fortune’
The people are happy for this pipe burst.Truly see it as a blessing
What poems can blessing be compared to?
prayer before birth,Hide and seek,Tyger and war photogrspher
Why can blessing and prayer before birth be compared?
provides a comparison from a child not yet born who knows too much abt suffering to children living in dire situation and their ‘fortune’
Why can blessing and Hide and seek be compared?
creates compariosn/parralel to the boy isolated/forgotten about in his community and the community who come together and celebrate
Why can blessing and Tyger be compared?
provides comparisons between the poet wondering at the gifts of god which are violent and dangerous, and the blessings in blessing which sustain life and sing over fragile bones
Why can blessing and war photographer be compared?
both examine hardships in other countries and how comfort can be found very scarcely at home in war photographers and in the spray of water in blessing
themes
- poverty
- religion
- children +innocence
- naievety
