Comparing and contrasting between two poems Essay

In this essay I am going to look at the differences and similarities betwixt dickens cultural poems. I will look at the language apply by the poets to recognise the divers(prenominal) 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 DharkerThe poem Island manhood is about a Caribbean Island man who lives in Lon forefather and still wakes up to the sound of the sea and the poem Blessing is about a third world country who guard hardly any water and elicitt wait for the water pipe to burst so that they can keep some more water for a while.Island Man is broken up into four stanzas with one line at the end on its own. The first stanza is where he is waking up after envisageing about the island and he is slowly coming spinal column from his dream. In this stanza they have used a allegory wombing, which is actually a made up word, however, this word make s 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 vanguard 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 atomic number 18 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 ascend defiantly this is a lexical field, creating the image of independence or refusing to be organized. as well as 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 colors whi sh are in reality special to him. Then the experience 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 every twenty-four hours life, and it vehemencees the way that he doesnt want to come back.The third and ordinal stanzas 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 unfeignedly pall 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 drop dead 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 often 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 horrific 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, splattering and echo. This makes you realise how precious the water is to the people in the poem, in particular when it sa ys 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 crazy 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 t heir 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 dont have much to eat and evidently 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 dont 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 cant h ave 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 doesnt 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.