The poems are similar in that they are both spoken in third person and present tense. They are both free verse and have no set rhythm. Each author has used punctuation to help to illustrate the poems. In ‘Island Man’, there is very little punctuation which helps to show that both places in the poem are linked, i.e. the imagery shows the beautiful Caribbean island but the subject is still in London: “Comes back to sands of a grey metallic soar” which makes us think of birds-another peaceful image-there are other plays on words such as “sands” instead of sounds, also the word “wombing” is used to imply that the feeling is comforting and feels safe like how a baby feels in the mother’s womb whereas in ‘Blessing’ there are no comforting images. In contrast, Dharker’s ‘Blessing’ has a lot of commas and other punctuations which is reminiscent of the flow of water although early in the poem the author uses short, sharp sentences which makes the poem feel quite serious which is in contrast to the main stanza, which, although the undertone is very serious, has an excited and happy feeling to it. The tone in which ‘Island Man’ is written is somewhat wistful and uses repetition to signify the man's efforts to drag himself back to reality from his daydreaming-”groggily groggily” and “muffling muffling”. Nichols also uses alliteration to suggest his dreamlike state-”sea, sun,sands, soar, surge.” Dharker also uses alliteration to describe how the water glistens on the children's bare skin making it “polished to perfection.” Both author's use colour imagery to distinguish between reality and the dream state in 'Island Man', brilliant ”blue” and “emerald” to describe the Caribbean island as opposed to the “grey metallic” of the city. In Blessing, the cascading water is silver which demonstrates that it is as valuable to the people as money
Both poems’ titles are significant to the poems. ‘Island Man’ could have a few meanings, for example the phrase “No man is an island.” meaning that no one can exist on their own-'Island Man' yearns for his home and his own culture, making him confused about his own identity in London, also, it could refer to London being a sort of island because it is a very built up area, it could also refer to the fact that London, as the capital city has a very multi-cultural society and the people there do have their own world which is sort of self-enclosed or it could even refer to the “dull North Circular roar” meaning the London ring road which he lives near or finally it could be just referring to the man coming from his original Caribbean island home. The title ‘Blessing’ sets the tone for the rest of the poem which has some religious references in it: “the voice of a kindly God”, “fortune”, “as the blessing sings…” also the use of the word “congregation” which is most usually used when talking about religion i.e. a church congregation. ‘Blessing’ refers to how the people in the poem see the water as a blessing and a privilege not something they have a right to and they don’t take it for granted like we do. It is an interesting point of view because it is almost the exact opposite to our own, also the line “the voice of a kindly God” is, to us, quite a strange way to look at it because we take water for granted and think nothing about how lucky we are to have it but the people in ‘Blessing’ are dying of thirst and what little water they do get is thought of as a blessing because they don’t know any different whereas we are used to having water whenever we need it and if it was taken away we would see it as a removal of our right.
The two poems are similar in that they are both about very hot climates and both mention water. Also, both see the situations in a very positive light, ‘Island Man’ only sees the upsides to the island and ‘Blessing’ predominantly only sees the happiness at having the water rather than the desperation of not having it. The main difference is that in ‘Island Man’ the imagery is full of water and the man in it is obviously quite well off to have emigrated to London but he misses his island home, though he doesn’t necessarily want to go back there, he has enough food and enough water and lives in a flat or house of some kind whereas the people in ‘Blessing’ cannot even afford clothing for their children, they use “pots, brass, copper, aluminium, plastic buckets, frantic hands” just to collect what little water there is there. They have no way to escape that life and move to a country or city that is better off and has plenty of resources for living. They live in huts and are crowded together whereas the “island man” leads a solitary life on his own. The difference being that 'Island Man' is isolated in London and set apart from his own culture but the villagers in 'Blessing' are united because of their culture and lifestyle.
I personally preferred reading Nichols’ ‘Island Man’ because although both poems have equally vivid imagery and quite positive tones, Dharker’s ‘Blessing’ has a very serious and worrying undertone in that the people are starving and they are dying of thirst while we waste what we have and think nothing of it at all. However, after reading the poem ‘Island Man’ you are not left with the uncomfortable feeling you have when reading ‘Blessing’, ‘Island Man’ gives a happier feeling because the man is daydreaming and his thoughts are all happy. In both poems there is a an escapist tone but we are always brought back to reality- 'Island Man' must always get up and go to work day after day and the burst water pipe will soon be fixed.
