Comparing and contrasting between two poems Essay

In this essay I am going to look at the differences and similarities between two cultural poems. I will look at the language used by the poets to describe the different cultures and I will also look at the imagery used to portray the cultures in the poems. The two poems I will be looking at is ‘Island man by Grace Nichols’ and ‘Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker’ The poem ‘Island Man’ is about a Caribbean Island man who lives in London and still wakes up to the sound of the sea and the poem ‘Blessing’ is about a third world country who have hardly any water and can’t wait for the water pipe to burst so that they can have some more water for a while. Island Man is broken up into four stanza’s with one line at the end on it’s own. The first stanza is where he is waking up after dreaming about the island and he is slowly coming back from his dream. In this stanza they have used a metaphor ‘wombing’, which is actually a made up word, however, this word makes you think that he could have possibly grown up here as the word gives the impression that he feels a sense of safety towards the island and so he could have grown up there. It also uses sibilance with the words ‘Surf, steady and wakes’. This creates a calm and gentle mood for the island where ‘Island Man’ possibly grew up. The second Stanza is also about him waking up from his dream and coming back from the island in his head and also expands on the image created in the first stanza. The first line ‘Wild seabirds’ gives you the feeling that on this island you are free and you can relax and have fun without being stressed out all the time. There is an adverb ‘defiantly’ used on the third line to describe the sun ‘Sun surfacing defiantly’ this is a lexical field, creating the image of independence or refusing to be organized. Also the word ’emerald’ has been used to describe the island, this suggests that the island is precious to him and that it has many vivid colours whish are really special to him. Then the last line of the second stanza is stood out from the rest of the poem ‘groggily groggily’ is used to describe the him coming back from the island to the stress of everyday life, and it emphasises the way that he doesn’t want t o come back. The third and fourth stanza’s are about him waking up from his dream about the island and realises that he is in London and not where he wants to be. ‘Grey metallic soar’ and ‘Dull, north circular roar’ are used to describe London as really dull and having a lack of colour, whereas the island appeared to be very colourful, for example ‘ Blue surf’ and ‘sun surfacing defiantly’ and ’emerald island’. Also in the third stanza the third line stands out from the rest of the poem ‘ Surge of wheels’, this is describing the sharp sound of London compared to the soft and relaxing sounds of the island. In the fourth stanza, the first and second lines link back to the island ‘muffling, muffling’ deadens the sharp sounds from earlier in the poem and ‘his crumpled pillow waves’, links to the sounds of the island, him thinking his pillow is the waves of the island. And finally the last line in the fourth stanza ‘island man heaves himself’ which is followed by the last line ‘Another London day’, Contrasts with wakes up and shows how much he really is longing to be on that island instead of in London and how he has to pull himself away from his island and begin another London day. The poem ‘Blessing’ starts with a similie which really emphasises the meaning of the poem ‘the skin cracks like a pod. There is never enough water’, onomatopoeia is also used with the word ‘cracks’ to add emphasis to show how desperate these people are for water. Like ‘Island Man’ the second stanza expands on the image created within the first two lines. The second line uses onomatopoeia twice, ‘splash’ and ‘echo’. This makes you realise how precious the water is to the people in the poem, especially when it says how they imagine the echo of it in a tin mug on lines 3-6, this really shows there desperation and longing for something everyone else would take for granted. In the third stanza, various metaphors are used to add emphasis to the previous stanza and also create a new image of how they react when they receive more water than they normally have. They describe the water as ‘silver crashing to the ground’, this shows how important the water is to the people, especially when the water is described as ‘silver’. The people are described as a ‘congregation’ to again add emphasis and show how much these people want the water and how desperate they are, this is shown again by using another metaphor on the very last line of the third stanza ‘frantic hands’, this again shows the desperate people trying to reach for the water. Finally, the fourth stanza describes how fantastic and amazing they find this water by using another metaphor to show how much they treasure the water ‘as the blessing sings over their small bones’, also in this final stanza it describes how poor they were and how little they had by saying that the children were naked and their ‘small bones’ could mean that they are really weak as they don’t have much to eat and obviously not enough to drink. Overall the two poems are fairly similar as they are both about people wanting things and longing for something that they don’t have. For instance in ‘Island Man’ he continuously dreams about the island where he possibly grew up and where he wants to be everyday instead of the dull and stressful life that he is currently living in London. Likewise in ‘Blessing’ the people who live in the poor country have hardly any water and are longing for water. A phrase from each poem could possibly link this to each poem, for example in ‘Island Man’ on the fourth line it says ‘In his head’ and in ‘Blessing’ on the third line it says ‘Imagine’. These phrases could indicate to the reader that both poems are about people wanting things that they can’t have and are so desperate that they dream about them. However there are differences between the two poems, for instance in the way the poems are written, because Island man has no punctuation apart from a capital letter on the first and last line and also on the first line in the section of poem that starts to describe the city of London. This could be to distinguish between the two different places described in the poem and then the last line of the poem where it shows how he is feeling about waking up for another London day when he really doesn’t want to. And also because in ‘Blessing’ they are longing for something which they need to survive (water), whereas in ‘Island Man’ he is desperate to go back to the island where he grew up and is precious to him however unlike the people in ‘Blessing’, he could actually live without the island, even though he may not want to, although you cant live without water.