Blessing

1. Blessing Imtiaz Dharker C. Barratt

2. Before reading the poem: • Think about a typical day. How many times do you use water? What for? • Imagine you had no water. What sorts of problems would this cause? • How do people in England change when the sun comes out? How does it make you feel? • What other weather changes can affect you? How? C. Barratt

3. So what happens? • There is a dire need for water in the unrelenting heat. • We imagine collecting such water as there is in a tin mug, drip by drip. • A water main bursts. • People rush to gather what they can in all manner of containers, while the children dance in the sparkling fountain. C. Barratt

4. The poem is set on the edge of a city – there is no particular city mentioned as this situation could happen in so many places around the world. C. Barratt

5. The first line confronts us with the stark image of human skin breaking open like a seed pod in the heat. • The second line is an unambiguous statement: “There never is enough water” C. Barratt

6. After the difficult beginning to the poem, the poem turns into a series of glittering images of gushing water. Have you noticed that the word “water” does not appear again? • Instead it is transformed into “silver” (line 9) and a “blessing” (line 22) – something precious and divine. C. Barratt

7. The poem seems to end positively, with excited ‘screaming’ children, innocent joy, at the centre of joyous images – “liquid sun; polished; flashing light”. (lines 19-21) • Even the children’s skin, once dry and cracked, seems jewel-like, ‘polished to perfection’ C. Barratt