Whereas in ‘Blessing’ the deprivation is much simpler, it is a physical lacking in, specifically water. It describes the yearning for and end to a drought and then the sheer joy when the monsoon finally comes.
The difference between fantasy and reality is effectively shown throughout ‘two scavengers…’ using various poetic and litery- devices, such as similes. One instance of this is ‘and both scavengers gazing down as if from a great distance, at the cool couple, as if they were watching some odourless T.V ad,’ this quote shows that to the garbage men, these ‘beautiful people in a Mercedes’ are not, or, cannot be real. The use of ‘odourless TV ad’ is a clear indication of this, as, TV advertisements usually show something to obtain, something you want to obtain, but of course being on a television, it’s something you cant actually touch, taste or smell. ‘Odourless’ also creates another difference between the two, of course the garbage men smell strongly because of their job, giving them a certain reality, but the ‘beautiful people’ seem to have no smell and so cannot be real, everything has a smell. The language used in this poem is very modern and westernized, it connects with city life which is where it is supposedly set.
In ‘Blessing’ there are many more metaphorical phrases used, which is one of the strong points to this poem and is a well used litery-device. An example of this is ‘ and naked children screaming in the liquid sun, their highlights polished to perfection flashing light as the blessing sings,’ within this one short quote from this poem there are 3 metaphors, the first and probably most significant being ‘liquid sun.’ This is portraying the water, shown by saying ‘liquid.’ Its main point, though is to show the importance of water. The sun, also mentioned is significant because it is the giver of light and more importantly life, it’s the cause of their terrible suffering but without it they would die, water is also a giver of life, without both of these none of us would be alive, and so it shows how incredibly important the water is to them. Another metaphor that is just as significant is ‘the blessing sings,’ because singing in almost every culture is a way of showing celebration and rejoicing. The blessing, being this huge amount of water, temporarily ending their need for it. The water obviously doesn’t literally sing but it does make possibly a babbling noise, or a gushing noise, whatever noise it makes must represent such happiness to these people who have not heard it for so long, this water is such a blessing to them, it ends their own suffering, but their children’s, if they have them, their friend’s and family’s, it wets their parched mouths and just changes usual frowns into smiles. The poem makes an impact by starting talking about the unutterable dryness-‘the skin cracks like a pod, there never is enough water’, it has made some of the poem much simpler by stating the state of affairs immediately.
There is a lot of difference when it comes to the general way it was written. The actual tone in ‘Two Scavengers…’ is quite narrative, story like, and almost comical- to a point, whereas ‘Blessing’ has a more formal approach, informative, almost journalistic.
Both poems have irregular stanza length, however the difference is that ‘Two Scavengers…’ is set out in a more imaginative way (see second paragraph for explanation). ‘Blessing’ uses shorter lines, maybe to show a limit from before the water came they had a limit on how much water they could get their hands on to drink, the same feelings stayed on, even though they have all this water they have to be careful, because you never know how soon or if it will all get taken away.
In conclusion the poems at first glance are very different, about different people, cultures and situations. Both poems made good use of similes, metaphors and other poetic devices but in very different ways. However the poems do have one very important thing in common, and that is what lies beneath, and that is this underlying theme, which is, wealth and deprivation. The way the garbage men were in complete awe of those beautiful people in a beautiful car, is more about the wealth and deprivation of society, whereas the blessing was a different kind of wealth, it was completely natural, something that all people should have, but something that these people need so much, a physical need. Both poems when compared against each other, though not when looked at separately, show us that our different cultures usually have the same underlying feelings (theme) but are always different in content.
