Blessing Poem analysis

1. Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker
Context
Imtiaz Dharker lives in India, in the city of Bombay. During the dry season,
the temperature can reach 40 degrees. The poem is set in a vast area of
temporary accommodation called Dharavi, on the outskirts of Bombay, where
millions of migrants have gathered from other parts of India. Because it is
not an official living area, there is always a shortage of water.
In an interview, the poet says: 'But when a pipe bursts, when a water tanker
goes past, there's always a little child running behind the water tanker
getting the bits of drips and it's like money, it's like currency. In a hot
country in that kind of climate, it's like a gift. And the children may have
been brought up in the city and grown up as migrants, but the mothers will
probably remember in the village they've
come from they would have to walk miles
with pots to get to a well, to the closest
water source. So it really is very precious.
When the water comes, it's like a god.'
Picture courtesy of Andrew Jarvis
What is Blessing about?
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
(With acknowledgements to BBC Bitesize)

2. 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.
• The poem starts with a simple statement, 'There is never enough
water', and shows what it is like to be without water.
• When the poet imagines water, it is so special it is compared to a god.
• When a water pipe bursts, we are shown how the community responds:
they collect as much water as possible.
• The children enjoy the water and play in it.
Structure
The poem is structured in four stanzas of different lengths.
• Why has the poet organised her thoughts in this way?
• Why does the poet start new paragraphs at lines 3, 7 and 18?
• Look at the full stops in this poem. How many full stops are there in
the first half of the poem (up to line 11)? How many are in the second?
What is the effect of this?
(Picture courtesy of Stephen Clark)
(With acknowledgements to BBC Bitesize)
It is significant that short stanzas (with
short, abrupt sentences) express what it is
like to be without water, and longer stanzas
(with flowing sentences) show what it is like
suddenly to have water.
Can you find any words in this poem which
rhyme? For example, note pod/god and ground/found/around. What is the
effect of these words? Can you find any alliteration? Try'the flow has
found' (line 10), 'polished to perfection' (line 20). What is the effect of
this?

3. (The essence of water. Picture courtesy of Akshay Mahajan)
Language
• Stanza 3 refers to 'men, women and
children', but stanza 4 focuses on the
children alone, as the water pours o
'their small bones'.
ver
• Look at the different reactions of the
adults and the children to the pipe
bursting.
• Why did the poet choose to end her
poem in this way?
Imagery
• The poem opens with a striking image of dryness: 'The skin cracks like
a pod.'. How does a pod crack? What sort of skin/pod do you imagine
here? What effect does this simile have on you?
• The sound of a drip of water is described in a metaphor as 'the voice
of a kindly god', while water itself is referred to as fortune, as silver,
and as 'the blessing'. What do these words have in common? 'Blessing'
is a religious word: blessings come from gods. A congregation can just
mean 'a crowd of people', but its main meaning is 'a crowd of
worshippers'. What does this imagery suggest about the importance
of water? Why did the poet choose Blessing as the title of her poem?
(With acknowledgements to BBC Bitesize)

4. (With acknowledgements to BBC Bitesize)
Sound
• When the water appears, we get words like rush, burst, crash, flow,
roar. What do these words have in common? What's the effect of
putting them close together? Can you link that effect with the list of
objects in lines 14-17?
Imtiaz Dharker has said this about the rhythm patterns in her poetry:
'My first instinct when I'm writing and when I'm saying the poems aloud is
always to get into a kind of iambic rhythm, so what I begin to do then is to
break the rhythm, break it internally. So I take it very much from spoken
rhythms, but at the same time I'm trying to do some bouncing off. I'm really
talking about the rhythms of my spoken word, which might be different
from the rhythms of someone else's.'
By iambic the poet means a steady, regular rhythm, which alternates
stressed and unstressed syllables in a fixed pattern. She prefers irregular
patterns in her writing.
Attitude, tone and ideas
Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses
toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of
the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to
the reader.
How should the poem be read?
• In a pitiful voice, sympathising with the poor of India?
• Excitedly, celebrating the blessing of the pipe bursting?
Choose a short quotation to justify your choice.
Ideas
The main idea in this poem is that water - so essential to life - comes to be
seen by people in a hot, dry country as supremely precious, a divine gift - a
blessing. Have a look at these quotes, and our suggestions about how they fit
into this theme

5. Key phrases and how they fit into the theme:
Images Key phrase Commentary
Picture courtesy of Stephen Clark
The skin
cracks like a
pod.
This image of the effect of
drought refers to the skin of
the earth, which cracks when
dry and becomes useless for
growing things, and the skin of a
seed-pod, which dries up and
becomes brittle once it has
fallen to earth. But it also
reminds us of the pain we feel
when our own skin splits...
Picture courtesy of Kate Gare
silver crashes
to the ground...
The rushing water, shimmering in
the bright sun, shines like silver;
but the word also suggests its
value to the villagers - like an
outpouring of precious metal,
which will make them rich.
Picture courtesy of Anushya Badrinath
From the
huts/a
congregation...
Congregation, like blessing,
suggests that the outpouring of
water is a kind of holy
communion, a religious event -
'the voice of a kindly god.'.
(With acknowledgements to BBC Bitesize)