Island Man and Blessing
Compare “Island Man” by Grace Nichols with “Blessing” by Imtiaz Dharker
Water is a necessity of life and affects people both physically and mentally. The poets Grace Nichols and Imtiaz Dharker explore the different themes of water in their poems “Island Man” and “Blessing”. These two poems give us a perspective of the cultures and lives of the people described in the poems, but are based on the running theme of water. Although they appear to be very different, they do have some similarities.
Looking first at “Island Man”, Grace Nichols, the poet, was born in Guyana in 1950, one of seven children. Her father was a headmaster and her mother a piano teacher. When she left school she met Agard and left her Caribbean island in 1977 to go with him to England. Her poem “Island Man” talks of a man who lived on an island, who is now in London, and a man who dreams of being back on his island. Nichols herself moved to a foreign place and this could relate to how Nichols is missing her home and maybe even symbolises her own dreams of being there.
Before the poem actually begins Nichols gives a brief introduction:
“for a Caribbean island man in London who still wakes up to the sound of the sea”.
Nichols does this to give the reader more information about the poem as well as to add realism to the situation. The poem is written in free verse, which gives the poem a rhythm and means the poem flows effectively. This allows the thoughts within the poem to merge freely into one another, which could reflect the constant theme of the sea, the flow of the water and the way the waves break. The theme seems to be how the lack of water affects him mentally.
The first stanza shows the reader how the island man is missing the sea and how he imagines being there. The island man is never given a name:
“and island man wakes up” which could represent the way he is not his own person; he is a representative of lots of migrants who are trying to fit in. As well as this, when the poem says
Water is a necessity of life and affects people both physically and mentally. The poets Grace Nichols and Imtiaz Dharker explore the different themes of water in their poems “Island Man” and “Blessing”. These two poems give us a perspective of the cultures and lives of the people described in the poems, but are based on the running theme of water. Although they appear to be very different, they do have some similarities.
Looking first at “Island Man”, Grace Nichols, the poet, was born in Guyana in 1950, one of seven children. Her father was a headmaster and her mother a piano teacher. When she left school she met Agard and left her Caribbean island in 1977 to go with him to England. Her poem “Island Man” talks of a man who lived on an island, who is now in London, and a man who dreams of being back on his island. Nichols herself moved to a foreign place and this could relate to how Nichols is missing her home and maybe even symbolises her own dreams of being there.
Before the poem actually begins Nichols gives a brief introduction:
“for a Caribbean island man in London who still wakes up to the sound of the sea”.
Nichols does this to give the reader more information about the poem as well as to add realism to the situation. The poem is written in free verse, which gives the poem a rhythm and means the poem flows effectively. This allows the thoughts within the poem to merge freely into one another, which could reflect the constant theme of the sea, the flow of the water and the way the waves break. The theme seems to be how the lack of water affects him mentally.
The first stanza shows the reader how the island man is missing the sea and how he imagines being there. The island man is never given a name:
“and island man wakes up” which could represent the way he is not his own person; he is a representative of lots of migrants who are trying to fit in. As well as this, when the poem says