‘Sonnet 130’ with ‘Blessing’
In this essay I am going to discuss and explore ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Blessing’ by Imtiaz Dharker. I will focus on the differences and similarities between both poems in terms of language, themes and poetic devices.
I feel that ‘Sonnet 130’ seems to imply the fact that Shakespeare is insulting his Mistress. He does so by saying what she is not. He says negative things about her appearance and voice.
The ‘Blessing’ poem is about people and children in a slum and their reaction towards water. They believe it as the ‘Voice of a kindly god’ because they hardly get any water in the slum. Water is rare to them.
The poems …show more content…
We know this because in Sonnet ‘130’ he says ‘I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses do I see in her cheeks.’ By this line he is stating that ‘damasked roses’, meaning large and fragrant roses, are not what his Mistress’ cheeks are like. Another example is ‘And in some perfumes there is more delight, than in the breath that from my mistress reeks’. Shakespeare is saying that in perfume there is more delight in smelling it rather than his mistress’ breath which he says reeks-foul …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s sonnet the enjambment falls between the lines ‘And in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.’ After the word ‘delight’ the rest of the sentence is on another line. Then after the word ‘reeks’ there is a fullstop where the enjambment ends.
A difference between both the poems is that Dharker’s poem is a normal poem and Shakespeare’s poem is a sonnet. A sonnet is a poem with fourteen lines that has a unique rhythm called an iambic pentameter. However Dharker’s poem is a normal poem that describes people’s reaction to water in a slum.
Similes are used in both these poems. A simile is when you compare one thing to another thing that is common and easy to picture in your mind. In other words a good poetic device used to create an image in your head. In ‘Blessing’ Dharker uses the simile ‘The skin cracks like a pod.’ Dharker means that, because there is hardly ever any water in the slum the ground cracks like a pod. By using a simile he has compared the ground to something common and created an image in my