Blessing - Analysis

Blessing is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker and is set in a village in Pakistan. This is a descriptive poem, which uses imagery to illustrate sights and sounds, and creates an atmosphere of frantic joy. The poem also consists of some inconsistent usage of end-rhyme, followed by some usage of metaphors, personification, simile, assonance and alliteration. The poet uses free verse in this poem to emphasize what the poem is about and to make the reader think about the situation and to think about the words used. It has no fixed metrical pattern.
The poem begins with a simile ‘The skin cracks like a pod’ this line immediately give the reader an impression of drought and a shortage of water. The usage of the word ‘skin’ could be a literal reference to a person’s skin that had become chapped by constant exposure to the sun or it could be a more figurative reference to the dry, dusty ground that cracks and splits during heat waves and droughts. The word ‘pod’ can refer to a seed pod that opens in the hot weather to release it seeds. The poet uses words that remind the reader that what we are dealing with is a hot country where thirst is common and where after all, ‘there never is enough water.’
By the words of the first two-lined stanza we are in no doubt to the fact that the villagers here are desperate for water and how much of an amazing and special thing it is for them. The poet involves the reader by asking us to ‘imagine the drip of it’, which is telling us how small the quantity is and to imagine the tiny splash as the water droplet hits the bottom of the cup. It seems as though the person describing the dripping water hasn’t had a drink in a very long time and is fantasizing about that special and delicious drop of water. The fact that the tiny droplet of water creates an ‘echo’ in the mug suggests that the tin mug is almost empty and is like a drop of water hitting a parched tongue. It also makes you think, what kind of person would own a tin mug? Would it be a rich