In ‘Blessing’ the poet says:
“The skin cracks like a pod”
Here the poet perfectly describes an event, and paints a clear picture in the mind of the reader of skin being so dry that it simply cracks. You get the image of a dry, abandoned desert where there are large cracks because of the lack of water. This could also suggest being painful to the people who live there due to the severe lack of water. This is also quite ambiguous because it could mean the earth’s skin i.e. the ground, but it could also mean the peoples skin. I think the poet describes this event in such a way to emphasise that there really “never is enough water.”
The poet then says:
“Sometimes, the sudden rush of fortune.
The municipal pipe bursts, silver
crashes to the ground”
Here the poet uses the word ‘rush’ which describes exactly what the water is doing. It’s rushing to be free from the pipe. I think the poet also uses the word rush to put across that this is going to be hear long and in a way foreshadows what happens after the pipe has burst.
The poet then writes:
“From the huts, a congregation: every man woman
child for streets around butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium, plastic buckets, frantic hands,”
This perfectly shows the event of every single person dashing to get the slightest bit of water. They’re so dry and deprived that they’re bringing everything with them to get as much water as possible. I think the poet adds this into the poem to re-iterate how desperate these people are and an event like this doesn’t happen very often.
Similarly in ‘Night of the Scorpion’ I get the picture of everyone dashing and crowding around like I do in ‘Blessing.’
I get this assumption when the poet writes:
“The peasants came like swarms of flies”
Here I get the picture of lots of people rushing and crowding around to see what’s happening. The poet uses a simile to compare the people to swarms of flies. I think this is quite an accurate depiction because I get a picture of people huddled around circling around, like swarms of flies.
The poet also suggests that the people who are crowding round are highly religious and pray to god for help. I get this assumption when the poet writes:
“Buzzed the name of God a
hundred times to paralyze the Evil One.”
The capitalisation of ‘Evil One’ suggests that the people believe the scorpion is ‘from the devil’ and is a sign of importance. This helps to emphasise their strong religious beliefs.
Likewise in ‘Blessing’ the poet conveys the people as religious when they write:
“The voice of a kindly god”
This suggests that the event that takes place is that of a religious doing, by God and they believe the water is sacred so they treat it in such a ‘mad dash’ as it’s a gift from God.
In both poems the poets use different methods to convey events in the poem however I feel the poet of ‘Blessing’ does this better than the poet of ‘Night of the Scorpion
