The Meaning of Water in the Poem Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker Essay

Though written in a very light and simple manner, the poem comes across as something very profound, laden with meaning through its incongruities. The persona, wanting to see something, often goes to the well and looks down at the water to see it. This certain search below the water's surface can be compared to man's search beneath the human experience for meaning, for certainty.

The poem "Our Son Swears He Has 102 Gallons of Water in His Body" is a poem used to challenge the mind of the reader. It makes the reader look farther into the meaning of things. This challenges not only your intuition, but your symbolism abilities as well. The author, Naomi Shihab Nye, seems to be portraying the average adolescent's thoughts of their parents. The poem is about a young man, his damaged relationship with his parents and the quest to mwnding its impairments.

Another technique this poem takes use of is alliteration. The alliteration used helps to express the themes importance through repletion of sound devices. A specific example of alliteration

In the two novels, Masters of the Dew and Praisesong for the Widow, water is an evident representation of change between opposite ideas throughout the overall plots. In Masters of the Dew, Jacques Roumain tells the story of Manuel, a Haitian peasant who struggles to save his native village, Fonds Rouge, from severe drought and division of the villagers. Later, Manuel finds a large reservoir of water but only tells the secret to one person. Towards the end of the story, the village is saved, but only after the divided village agree to work together and build an irrigation system after Manuel dies. In spite of Manuel’s death, the people of Fonds Rouge finally access water. In his death, there was change--reconciliation. In this novel, water symbolises change, from death to life--revival. In Praisesong for the Widow, the symbolism is similar, but not as literal. The story starts with Avey Johnson, an African American widow, on a cruise ship with her friends. However, Avey starts to feel an indescribable urge to

Water.  It expresses its’ power in the form of hurricanes and flash floods.  It displays its gentleness, washing dirt off a child's scabbed knee.  Water has been used to quench the thirst of many longing throats; and it has been the cause of death to those who unfavorably crossed its path.  It possesses the power of total destruction, yet it holds the bases of all life.  Generally, water has symbolized cleanliness and renewal.  In the Bible, water was used in Baptism, cleansing the soul of original sin and offering a new life in the light of God.  Water in itself is a natural purifier, washing the dirt from our bodies. Water is a symbol of

To elaborate, the reader can not truly hear what is taking place in the poem, but does get a sense of being able to hear what they are reading. For instance when the speaker says “While his gills were breathing in” (22), the reader can almost hear the fish breathing. The speaker again stimulates the auditory senses when she says “and a fine black thread, / still crimped from the strain and snap” (58-59). Again the reader can virtually hear the sound of the line snapping. The next aspect of imagery that needs to be examined is the sensory imagery. An excellent example of sensory imagery is found when reading the lines “It was more like the tipping, / of an object toward light” (43-44). These lines can give an almost unbalanced feeling to the reader as they conceptualize these words. Imagery is not the only important element used in this poem. As stated earlier, irony is an important component involved in “The Fish”.

Imagery allows the reader to hear and connect to the story by using onomatopoeia and see what is happening in the poem.

The geography of rivers is important to their symbolism in this story. Antonio’s river starts from a lake, a place of no morals; studies prove that infants are selfish beyond belief, and so is water at its birth. His river carries the water to the ocean, the place where all water lands, carrying the blood and salt and debris that it picks up on its long journey. All high rivers go to the ocean, no matter how many lakes they go through. The ocean is where water goes to die, until its spirit, in clean water, is carried through the clouds back into the frigid mountain lakes, where it is born again. This is the cycle of water, and the cycle of life.

Throughout the poem the tone and harmony is showing many different moods including shyness, anger and calmness. An example of shyness is at the start of the poem “softy, silently it swishes”, an example of anger is in the middle of the poem “it thumps, it sprays it rips at shores, its ozone spray”, and finally at the end of the poem calmness is shown, “it spends its strength, it sings, it sighs. The wave recedes”. One aspect of the poem I find intriguing is the alliteration and personification. For example, “it sighs, it sings, it seeks”.

Artist, Kesha, co-wrote and sang the song titled “Praying.” In the video that she created for the song she shows us, the audience, what she went through during her healing process from the sexual and mental violence she received. Through many methods, such as religious references, Kesha took us through her journey through ethos, logos, and pathos.

conveys the majority of the message in the poem, ' does it dry up like

The lack of rain in this piece of literature symbolizes the bitter karma the murderer had coming their way, which ultimately punished the entire town and it’s residents. Parallel to this idea, the victim’s girlfriend, Kate, is left viewing the dried up lake as a sense of hopelessness leaving her with constant thoughts of wanting

The poem “Blessing” is about an unfortunate group of people who miraculously find clean water because of a pipe bursting. This is seen as a blessing because of the inadequate amount of water they get in addition to the hot weather conditions and constant droughts. Imtiaz Dharker sets the poem “Blessing” in a shanty town near Mumbai. She starts the poem with a powerful simile describing the state of these people whilst setting the scene. “The skin cracks like a pod”. The word “skin” could demote metaphorically to the earth. Immediately an image of drought and dry soil comes to mind. The phrase “cracks” highlights how hot the country is. This is effective because it allows the reader to envision the scene. The use of onomatopoeia exemplifies the noise of the ground exemplifies the noise of the ground. On the other hand the poem. “Island Man” is about a Caribbean man who one morning woke up in London. This anonymous character is used live in the Caribbean island but wakes up every morning to the sounds and blissful memories of the Caribbean. The Caribbean Scenario that he thinks he has woken up to contrasts harshly with the reality of his existence in London. The sentence “wakes up to sounds of blue surf” proves that Island Man sees the Caribbean as a calm and relaxing location however the poet describes London as a “grey metallic soar”. This usage of language is an illusion compared to the

and that he believes them. The poem also translates into how living in the city is toilsome and that the city is unrelenting. On the other hand it shows how the city can be prosperous and happy with the city’s disadvantages. in the second half of the poem it’s telling how nomatter what is wrong with the city, the people are still proud of who they are.

These lines use enjambment for the effect of the lines flowing into each other to make it seems like the sea. The first half flows smoothly, as does the second half, except for the final word. The letter "S" is used in both halves to bring them together - to remind the readers of Islands Man closeness to the sea. The letter "H" ("head") is a break from the "S's" and therefore the rhythm is lost. The third line ("to the sound of blue surf") has alliteration of the letter "S". The sound of this letter is very much like that of the waves to remind the reader of the sea. To insure that this comes across to the readers there is emphasis on these letters. There is also an emphasis on the word "head" here to make the readers realize that it is only in Island Man's head, as he also realizes the truth.