Analyzing Poem using SPECS and SLIMS

Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker

The skin cracks like a pod.

There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,

the small splash, echo

in a tin mug,

the voice of a kindly god.

Sometimes, the sudden rush

of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,

silver crashes to the ground

and the flow has found

a roar of tongues. From the huts,

a congregation : every man woman

child for streets around

butts in, with pots,

brass, copper, aluminium,

plastic buckets,

frantic hands,

and naked children

screaming in the liquid sun,

their highlights polished to perfection,

flashing light,

as the blessing sings

over their small bones.

Poem Analysis

Subject-matter.

As what I understand after reading this poem thoroughly, I can see that the poet herself wants to tell readers that the importance of water differs to different social classes of people. In this poem, she always compare water to precious things as silver , and create other senses so readers can see that the poet herself putting stress on the subject of water in sub-urban areas where the source and amount of water is limited and keeps making people fighting for it. Seems to be under the hot sunlight and vast area where the poet herself describes the situation and surroundings in this poem.

Purpose.

There are several themes in this poem that could be identified, but the most appealing theme in this poem is the value of water itself to people. The area and part of the world that are going through this state of problem would be at the sub-urban areas where there are no or less the piping system, wells and water source such as Africa, Mexico and other places where poverty occurs. Can be seen in this poem that the poet cherish and put herself in the situation as if she is living in the same surroundings as these people which are having crisis in water. The preciousness and value of water is high to people that don’t have the access of water like in the city area.

Emotion of poet.

The emotion of the poem at the beginning of the poem can be described as being sad and empathy. She felt sad by seeing people with not enough water in their body walking around and do works like normal people regardless to the fact that they need sufficient amount of water in their bodies to stay alive. In the first two lines, we can see the poet being sympathy to those people and even compared those people’s state of skin to dry seedpod that has cracks around them. As it goes down, the emotion of poet seems to be relieved that when she stated that those people have gotten their water supply and at the last stanza in this poem, happiness can be identified in poet’s emotion because she stated that those children happily playing with water and take bath with it.

Craftsmanship.

This poem does not have regular numbers of lines in it. Because we can see that lines in each stanza are different.2-4-11-6, the type of this poem is narrative and the poet herself tells the story as if she is in the same situation or being empathy to those people. Next would be the use of language by the poet. The language used is somehow predictable because she herself had stated clearly the description of a person that is in the condition of water insufficient like dry skin. Words like “drip” and “splash” shows the characteristic of liquid or specifically, water. In this case, she stressed on the sense of hearing. Normally, people will ignore the sounds of water flowing from a higher place and falls to the ground, but she had wrote so that readers could imagine the sound of water, how it is appreciated by those people. Other than that, we can see the usage of simile in the first sentence when the poet compared the skin to a pod, which at the moment were having the same condition, which is dry. The word “like” shows the equality to both dry skin and dry seed pod. “The sudden rush of fortune” shows the usage of personification. Human do rush to somewhere or doing works in limited amount of time. But for water (fortune), it only flows from a place to another. The usage of ‘rush” shows that the poet wants to emphasize the coming of good things and changes in those poor people. Apart of that, “a roar of tongues shows that those people in poverty shouting and yelling as soon as the water supply arrived.” Also, the usage of symbolism could be found used many times in this poem. “Fortune”, “silver”, “blessing”, “small bones” symbolize water and human body (“small bones”).

Summary.

Based on the poem that has been analyzed, can be seen clearly that the poet was trying to emphasize on the importance of water to people in another part of the world which have very limited access to water. She did stress on the hardship of those people to obtain water supply and their reaction as soon as they got water supply. Happiness of those people and how water is appreciated much by them in order for them to survive in this world to do basic living like taking bath, water for drinking and cooking.

THIS IS WE ACTUALLY ANALYSE POEMS USING SPECS AND SLIM METHOD.IT IS MORE STRUCTURED AND MORE COMPREHENSIBLE.

Survival Techniques.

Knowledge without practices Gives you almost nothing.

Have you ever imagined in your dream before that you were in some kind of horrendous terrain,

without even single protection and nowhere to head to?

WHAT IF THAT DREAM TURNS TO BE REAL AND HUNT YOU UNTIL YOUR LAST BREATH?

WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT?DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP ON BREATHING AND ALIVE?

Surviving is not a thing that all of us can do spontaneously without knowing the basic knowledge and having the right preparations in getting over the obstacles and treacherous earth

that awaits us ahead.

Yes,some might say they can do it confidently. But, living with lost limbs and body parts is far different from being as we were before we got into the disaster. Considering the facts that we have dangerous parts on our earth and animals as factors in determining how safe we are at the moment and how well we were to be in the end of it.

Below are the steps and preventing measures in getting over the deadly situations. They are actually the basic steps surviving in the wilderness of earth.

1. Fire : It can be a foe, but in surviving, it will always be considered as friend, in fact, we have to have fire almost all the time in surviving or otherwise, the chances to live and get home safely will be as minute as it can be. With fire, you can boil water, terminate away all the E-Coli bacterias that are roaming in it which highly possible in making you sick, get sicker day by day, hour after another, and probably die due to them. Also, no matter how dangerous animals in the wild as lions, crocodiles, tigers, hyenas, snakes and other animals with fangs and venoms which are waiting to bring you down, they will never be able to face fire themselves. It would be a guardian and protection for you and others in the wild.
2. Shelter or hiding place: since this factor is among the important reasons for one to stay alive, lets take a look of what it does and how it helps human in surviving the rough nature. Shelter as we all know are medium that commonly known used to protect our body from being stung or bitten by dangerous animals in the wild. In jungles or vast places where you have no common sources as you could find in the modern civilization like plastic, PVC or hard mattress that can cover your body, you can use what god gives you, like piles of branches and logs which you can cut from the trees around in the jungle. Make sure that you cover the floor of the shelter that you have build with things that can prevent animals from entering it.

3. Water: the mix of hydrogen and oxygen, which creates the water particles are very vital for human body. Human cannot stand even 2 days without water. As soon as the period ends, it is whether he will collapse and faint or total death. It is to be importantly informed to backpackers and mountain hikers to bring their own bottles of drinking water because water in jungles and deserts contain bacteria that can cause severe harm to human being. Filled with animals’ droppings and dead carcasses, surely the water is not suitable for human. If the situation could not be avoided, start a fire and find a container which can be filled with water to boil it. This process will totally terminate the existence of bacteria and viruses in the water.

4. Mentally Prepared: This factor cannot be seen, but has been approved to be true in survival of human in tough situations. Brain tends to affects our body to be resistant to all of the rough situations. One, who thinks he or she cannot struggle until the end will result in failure and one who thinks that he or she can move forward and keep on living, will achieve the success of finding his or her way home. Stressor, which is a negative stimuli will cause stress on a person and he or she will die due to fear, hunger and fatigue of the situations. These stimuli can be manipulated if one thinks that he or she will live and find way home.

Modernization saves you, Modernization kills you.

Quite ironic isn’t it?

The same term that has been helping human society and generations from eons to another also kills human being at the same time.

As quoted by Sai Baba, “Give a fish to a man, and he will eat it for the whole day. But if you teach fish to a man, he will eat for the whole lifetime.”

Just imagine if you learn to create something without considering its effects to the world, that would be the same as killing yourself. View pictures below to see what we have done to ourselves.

Whale slaughtering that have been practiced widely around the world. Known for their body fats, soups and being used as talisman to certain people.

Another massive activity done in certain countries in HARVESTING whales for their meat and body fats

Plastic bags, undegradeable products made by US, human, being thrown and eaten by turtles in the sea, can cause suffocation and possibility in causing DEATH to them.

Now, lets go deeper in seeing whale being poached and hunted. This might be slightly gruesome, but we have to see the truth of what is happening around us.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

Curing might be hard, but it is also must be done before its too late. Save our ecosystem and planet, save our generation, save our lives, save our soul, people!!

Below are steps that we have to approach in order to achieve success in protecting and preserving our nature.

• 75% of all fisheries are fully exploited or over-fished. Species like cod, haddock and halibut are already threatened. If we do not move towards sustainable use, there will be no fish left for our grandchildren.
• Roads, factories and housing destroy habitats for animals and plants. If urban and rural development continues to ignore nature, our surroundings will be dominated by concrete and pollution.
• The usage of undegradeable products have to be reduced and if possible, terminate their usages, that would be better for our future lives.
• Report any pollution that are done by irresponsible factories or anybody to the law.
• Be more matured when buying products so that if we are thinking if disposing them, we dont have to think twice....
• Teach biodiversity and harmony to student in schools around the world so that they will not be careless when they grow up.
• Put posters and banners showing pictures of dead animals, being tortured or killed by human being.

These are some of the steps we can conduct in saving our nature.

BE RESPONSIBLE,BE MORE MATURED AND THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF STEPS YOU WANT TO TAKE EACH TIME YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING.