The last piece of decryption before the poem is describing the Caribbean island, and the first word of the poem is “morning” after reading the caption nine times out of ten I think the reader will still be picturing the island and the reality of discovering the man was dreaming and he’s infect in London becomes ever more apparent, the where about of the protagonist is no longer questionable a sense of place has been firmly been established. The reader is now aware that the “man” was dreaming about the island and can sympathise with him taking the “dull north circular” journey he has to take into consideration.
The poet plays around with the reader slightly I think and regularly snaps in and out of this fictional reality despite the fact the “man” is now awake, the way in which the poem is organised adds to this effectively, Grace Nichole’s knows where the “man” would rather be and which location we the reader would rather read about so I think she deliberately sets the poem out to dash our hopes in again being on what we thought was a Caribbean island, the poem reads:
Morning
and the island man wakes up
to the sound of blue surf “The reader thinks they are going back to the island”
in his head
in doing this we are 100% certain of our where about's we are in a place where any thing can happen, this adds to the excitement factor of the poem dramatically because we no longer know what to expect. “where in a place where we and the “man” would rather not be dreaming/fantasising about an idealistic paradise island”
Like in the beginning of the poem Grace Nichole’s uses simple decryption to add to the overall atmosphere of the island in doing so intensifying the readers perception of the Caribbean island, simple decryption like “Morning” and “Wild Sea Birds” are inference tactics, they make the reader think of other words/phrases which would directly be associated with a Caribbean island an example of some of these words would be a tropical horizon or free roaming exotic animals.
We are led through all the delights of a natural paradise and then we are dropped back in to the real word with a bold statement. “Another London day”
Imtiaz Dharker’s “Blessing” portrays a very clear idea of place from the very start, the poems name its self I believe to be an obvious indication of are probable where about’s the fact that the poem is called blessing would indicates to me either a hostile unsatisfactory environment or some one that’s for some reasons unhappy in order for some sort of blessing to be necessary in the first place. Imtiaz Dharker’s uses a very obvious method of inference in order to get the sense of place in his poem across “Entitling some thing Blessing = Something going or has gone wrong in the past but its about to be resolved”
Unlike Grace Nichole’s there’s no room for varying opinion on some of his key statements “ there is never enough water” can only be viewed in one way not like “Another London day” which we assume is a bad day but some people may prefer days in London to a Caribbean island.
The bold statement “there is never enough water” would I think make the reader think of a barren environment in which nothing grows and people are living in extreme depravity and hardship due to the lack of water the sense of place therefore is a desert like setting which is indicated with one sweeping statement.
The poet Imtiaz Dharker’s I think has far more discrete deposition and language technique in comparison to Grace Nichols who lets the reader decided a lot of what’s in the poem and where and how much to read in to it Dharker uses youthasisims extensively which shows me that his poem has a set purpose and a end goal which corresponds with his chosen traditional story format lay out.
