There are many religious beliefs in 'Blessing', as you can see straight away from the title, which emphasises how holy the water is to the people and that it is a blessing from God. Many of the religious words are use to describe the water and to also symbolise the culture of the people living there. The sound of the dripping water is referred to as 'the voice of a kindly god' in line 6, but then later on it is also referred to as 'fortune and 'silver'. This is connected to God in the Hindu religion, because Hindus pray to wealth and fortune as a symbol of one of their goddesses. 'Fortune' also emphasises on the importance of water to the people in the village. In line 12 the crowd of people are called 'a congregation'. A congregation can just mean 'a crowd of people', but its main meaning is 'a crowd of worshippers'. However in Tatamkhulu Afrika's poem there is no sign of any religious beliefs. The title of the poem does not just say that thing's have not changed, but disappointment that the expected change has not happened.
'Nothing's Changed' is a political poem whereas 'Blessing' is not. On one hand Tatamkhulu Afrika's poem has an angry tone because nothing has changed and that the city is still segregated. The colour white becomes symbolic of anger in line 15, 'and the hot, white, inward turning anger…' On the other hand 'Blessing' has a joyful tone because they have received what they wanted and their problem has been solved. If the poem is to be read out aloud then the reader would read the beginning in a pitiful voice, sympathising with the poor of India, but then excitedly, celebrating the blessing of the pipe bursting. Both poems use echoes in their poems. In 'Nothing's Changed', 'bone' is echoed again later in the poem to emphasis the ironic racism when the writer is saying the blacks are born to poverty. In 'Blessing' the word 'voice' is later echoed with 'sings' to emphasis the blessing's importance.
'Blessing' has a single central metaphor that extends throughout the whole poem: giving of water as a 'blessing' from a 'kindly god'. Water is the source of other metaphors: fortune is seen as a 'rush' (like water rushing out of the pipe), and the sound of the flow is matched by that of the people who seek it - their tongues are a 'roar', like gushing water. Water is likened to 'silver' which 'crashes to the ground', and light from the sun is seen as 'liquid' because of its reflection in the water. 'Nothing's Changed' however does not have a central metaphor, although it does have similes. An example of this is in line 18 where it says 'flaring like a flag'. This also has alliteration of the 'f'. There is also alliteration in 'Blessing' when it says 'small splash' in line 4. There is also alliteration in the first words of each line up to line 15. For example in the first two lines, both of the lines start with the letter 't'. Both poems also have irregular rhymes. In 'Blessing' there is a rhyme at the end of the lines (ground, found, around) and also internal rhymes (plastic, frantic). There are also rhymes in 'Nothing's Changed' (like 'seeds', weeds' and 'nose', 'rose'). There is repetition in the poem by Tatamkhulu Afrika in lines 43 and 44, ('small mean') to emphasis the anger of the poet to see this segregation. However, the Imtiaz Dharker uses personification in line 22 to emphasis how holy the water is and to create a joyful atmosphere. In the first half of the 'Blessing' poem there are many full stops, but after line 11 there is only one that is right till the end. This is to emphasis the sad atmosphere because of the lack of water, but then there is happiness and to emphasis the rush of water there is no full stops.
The layout of 'Blessing' is like a story with a verse for the beginning, middle and end. This fits the poems contents exactly and the poem does itself have a beginning, middle and end. This is different to the poem written by 'Tatamkhulu Afrika', which is in regular verses. This may be to emphasis that nothing has changed and therefore no changes in the verses or layout. The regularity in the layout also creates a sense of control; the poet is very clear about what he is feeling and he does not suddenly fly into a rage.
There is a lot of imagery in both of the poems. In 'Blessing' the poem opens with a striking image of dryness, ('The skin cracks like a pod'). This simile gives the effect of visual imagery. When the water appears, we get words like 'rush', 'burst', 'crash', 'flow' and 'roar'. These are all onomatopoeic words which create auditory imagery and helps us hear what the water sounds like. The viewpoint in 'Nothing's Changed' is very well established because we can place ourselves 'in the poets shoes'. It is as if we are walking on the rough ground and see everything he sees.
Both poems have different symbols in their poems. In 'Nothing's Changed' the important image is 'glass'. it symbolises the division of colour and class. Afrika sees himself as a "boy again", who has left imprint on glass. He wants to break glass. This is very symbolic because he wants to break down system, which divides people in South Africa. In 'Blessing' the most obvious symbol is water, by the way it is shown and referred to as holy. The poem compares firstly the human skin to a seedpod, drying out and then the reader is to imagine the dripping of the water. When the 'municipal pipe' bursts, it is seen as unexpected good luck, but at the end of the poem, Imtiaz Dharker reminds us of the sun, which causes the skin to crack 'like a pod' again. So it gives us a sad ending by saying that the water is today's blessing but hen tomorrow will be drought.
