Blessing and Scavengers Essay Example

going on in the poem. 'skin cracks like a pod', their skin is so it cracks as there's not enough moisture in their skin.

The Earth cracks when it gets too dry. 'There never is enough water', telling us that they can't cope without water in desperate need of it and can't get enough of it. 'Imagine the drip of it', they have to imagine the 'drip' of water as there isn't enough there to turn the tap on. 'tin mug, brass, copper, aluminium, plastic buckets', these are the basic materials they use to collect the water with. No colourful designs along the side of them. 'Sometimes the sudden rush of fortune', this suggests it doesn't happen very often and if it does it's a miracle.

Silver crashes to the ground', the water is being compared to silver which is a precious metal. The people get excited at the water pouring out of the ground as 'a roar of tongues' is upon the place. The children aren't as fortunate as the children living in other wealthy countries and can't even get clothes 'naked children'. The issue of not having a lot of things is dealt with in 'Scavenger'. The garbage men lack essentials but they can't complain about their situation as they've got a home to go to and fresh, clean running water.

The poem 'Scavengers' written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he talks about the differences between rich and poor and uses language and imagery to do this. There are two garbage men on a truck waiting at a stoplight when a Mercedes pulls up beside them. 'Bright yellow garbage truck', this is what the scavengers go to work

in which isn't very attractive. On the other hand the two rich people go to work in a 'Mercedes'. The scavengers wear 'red plastic blazers' which is scruffy work clothing whereas the rich man is wearing a 'hip three-piece linen suit' and woman wearing a 'short skirt and coloured stockings'.

The older scavenger has 'grey iron hair' meaning he doesn't look after it as it's become dull and wiry. The garbage men think how good it would be to live that life. 'scavengers gazing down', they look down as if they were there enjoying what that life had to offer. The rich/poor element is dealt with in 'Blessing' but at least the garbage men have a life in which is worth living. If they had worked harder and aimed high then they could have had a life of luxury.

The poem 'Blessing', Imtiaz Dharker has gone for a more negative tone with no positive coming form it. small splash, echo', there was a couple of drops but then it was just an 'echo' of silence as no more water was heard. 'small bones', this shows that the children don't eat properly and the writer knows and wants the reader to feel sympathy for them. 'There never is enough water', gets straight to the point of what the writer wants to be said. The negative attitude comes out right at the start when those words are mentioned. In 'Scavengers', Lawrence Ferlinghetti seems to mix up his attitude in different ways in the poem.

He's showing the garbage men wanting to change their way of living for the life and career of the man driving the Mercedes. 'Grungy from their

route', feel some sympathy towards them as they've been up really early plus having to suffer the torment of seeing two smartly dressed people with high flying jobs as if it's getting rubbed right in their faces. In 'Blessing' the writer intends to show how bad the way of living in this poor country and achieves this well by different aspects of ideas used such as the language, imagery and the tone.

The message the reader gets is first of all feeling sympathetic towards them as well as thinking how bad it would be if we were in their position with only basic materials. It would be to switch from the life we live now going to a poor less fortunate life. In 'Scavenger' the writer sets out to show the lives of two completely different people comparing the rich and the poor. They're from different backgrounds but the reality is that they were once children and the garbage men may have had a different life rather than the job they've got now.

There are some signs of the writer wanting the reader to fell sympathy towards them. Also the message is that anything's possible if you put your mind to it. Both of the poems talked about achieve the writer's intention in what he wants the reader to know. In 'Blessing' the writer wants to show how much the children are desperately in need of water. Imtiaz Dharker does this well as the reader fells sympathy towards them. The poem 'Scavenger' written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti shows how different classes of people can quite easily have had different lives if they think carefully about what they're doing.