Write about the use of description and its effect in any two poems.

   There is a lot of descriptive language throughout each poem, the descriptive language in ‘ Blessing ‘ always adds emphasis and it gives you a better idea of how precious things such as water are to the people of this shantytown. For example “ Silver crashes to the ground “ is very affective as it gives people who take water for granted the perspective of those who have little water and have to wait for miracles such as these.

In ‘ An Old Woman’ the descriptive language is used to show us what the tourist thinks of this old woman, the descriptions affect me a lot as I feel they are powerful. For example “ You look right at the sky. Clear through the bullet holes she has for her eyes. “ This description has a certain power as it changes the whole view of the poem and the tourist then looks at the old woman in a totally different way. The description of the old woman at the start of the poem affects us as we are told to think that this person is just  ‘another’ annoying old woman. The description of the woman is very negative and you are lead to believe that the old woman  

   The writer of ‘Blessing ‘ uses many metaphors to give more effect and meaning to some words or lines for example when Imtiaz describes the drip of water a metaphor is used to give it more affect. For example “ the voice of a kindly god” and the water is described as “ silver” and “ the blessing” The description of the water and people of this poem seems very vivid and detailed. The detail goes to good affect as it shows us the happiness of the people when the water arrives but it is kept quite simple. There is one central metaphor underlined throughout the poem which affects the reader as it is always referring to the water as a ‘blessing’ and it that the water was a ‘ gift from a kindly god’ these religious thoughts are repeated throughout ‘ Blessing’ to remind the reader what affect the water is having on the people of this shanty town in the poem.    

‘ An Old Woman’ also uses metaphors to add more affect to the poem, for example “ like small change” adds emphasis and makes the tourist feel inferior to the old woman. The description affects us as a reader as we are forced to think about how we would feel if we were put in the tourist’s shoes. It gives us his perspective of the matter and we find out that he is the one who is small and he has been reduced to the small change in his hand.