Poems from Different Cultures? Help!?

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SofiaA

New member
I am doing some analysis questions on some poems.
There's one poem called Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker. The question about this is 'Dharker refers to this poem as a celebration. How des she acheive this feeling in the poem?
I wasn't here in my class when they were analysing it so I don't know much about it.
Any help appreciated :D
 
The skin cracks like a pod.
There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,
the small splash, echo
in a tin mug,
the voice of a kindly god.

Sometimes, the sudden rush
of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues. From the huts,
a congregation : every man woman
child for streets around
butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium,
plastic buckets,
frantic hands,

and naked children
screaming in the liquid sun,
their highlights polished to perfection,
flashing light,
as the blessing sings
over their small bones.



Imtiaz Dharker
 
Basically after suffering for ages without any water and people dying (1st stanzas) they are then blessed with plenty of water and it is a celebration that they can live again. She uses words like silver to describe the water as something very precious and beautiful as it has been lost for so long. One of the first lines is 'cracks like a pod' and this gives even more contrast for when they do have water as can cracking is a very dry sounding word and only things that have no moisture can crack :) hope this helps a little bit. Buy York notes: poems from different cultures it helps me loads in my english classes :) x
 
I'd follow what Elle says, to put it into social context it's to do with the Napalm bombs. This iconic picture is distressing but puts into context the desperation of the time, and of the children.
 
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