”Blessing”, by Imbilz Dharker and ”Night Of The Scorpion” by Nissim Ezelkiel

Write about how ‘Blessing’ and ‘Night Of The Scorpion’ show that people in some cultures have to struggle for things that we take for granted in our culture.

‘Blessing’, by Imbilz Dharker and ‘Night Of The Scorpion’ by Nissim Ezelkiel both teach us a lot about another culture. Both poems are set in third world countries; the people in both countries are poor.

The poem ‘Blessing’ describes one day when a water pipe bursts in the middle of the town. This would not seem an important event in out culture, but to these people it is very significant because water is very hard for them to get hold of and the children are never allowed to play in it.

I can see this in the poem where it says, ” sometimes, the sudden rush of fortune “. This quotation shows that the people see water as a gift from god that is blessed. While we take water for granted, the villagers have to work hard for what they get, and most of the time it is not enough for their families.

The poem ‘Night Of The Scorpion’ is narrated by the man who’s mother got stung, the person who is telling us this story is the young boy. In our culture, if this had happened we would be taken to hospital and treated. However, the villagers in this community don’t have any medical supplies and so they have to rely on their belief and their skill to produce herbal remedies to help the mother.

I now intend to write about how the poets use language to show the villagers attitudes. Both poets use metaphors. In ‘Blessing’ the water is described as ” silver “. This quotation suggests that the people see water as a precious substance.

In ‘Night Of The Scorpion’ the scorpion is described as ” The evil one “.

This metaphor shows that the people are comparing the scorpion to the devil.

A theme in both poems is religion, which is very important in these cultures. The villagers in ‘Blessing’ believe that the water is valuable and precious. This is clear form the quotation ” A sudden rush or fortunes “, which suggests that the people in the village see the water as something that is very important and valuable.

The presents in ‘Night Of The Scorpion’ believe very strongly in religion and in superstitions. They try very hard to catch the scorpion because they believe that when the scorpion is caught the poison will stop moving around the mother’s body. I can see this in he poem when it says,

” With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in the mothers blood “. As the mother twisted in pain, the peasants all sit around her and chant. The writer uses repetition to show that the peasants keep chanting foe ages. The words he repeats are ” they said “.

In both poems the way that people react to what happens shows that they cannot take basic things for granted. When the pipe bursts in ‘Blessing’, all the villagers think that it is a mere cal. I can see this when it says, ” The municipal pipe bursts “. This shows that the people include religion in most things in there life. The writer uses a very long sentence here to emphasise the importance of what has happened.

In ‘Night Of The Scorpion’, the boy’s father does not believe in the peasants’ superstitions. I know this because he is described as a “sceptic”.

However, although he doesn’t believe in it, he is willing to try ” pouring a little paraffin upon the bitten toe and put a match to it “. This shows that he is willing to try anything to help his wife.

Although these two poems are about cultures, which are different to ours, they both show that wherever you are in the world, human being are very similar. In Blessing when the pipe bursts, the children all run out of their huts and start to play in water. This is described in the poem as follows:

” And the naked children screaming in the liquid sunshine “. This reminds me of children in our culture when the kids play in the lawn sprinkler. The metaphor ” liquid sunshine ” suggests that the water is warm as the sun is heating it up.

Similarly, in ‘Night Of The Scorpion’, the writer shows at the end that mothers have the same love for their children wherever they live.

The narrator tells us at the end of the poem, in a separate stanza to make it stand out and seem important, that his mother said, ” thank god the scorpion picked me and not my children “. This shows that mothers all over the world have the same concerns about their children and they would prefer bad things to happen to then rather then their children.

There poems make me feel glad to live in a culture, where we can take water and medical supplies for granted.