Comparing and contrasting between two poems Essay Example for Free

Comparing and contrasting between two poems Essay In this essay I am going to look at the differences and similarities between two cultural poems. I will look at the language used by the poets to describe the different cultures and I will also look at the imagery used to portray the cultures in the poems. The two poems I will be looking at is Island man by Grace Nichols and Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker The poem Island Man is about a Caribbean Island man who lives in London and still wakes up to the sound of the sea and the poem Blessing is about a third world country who have hardly any water and cant wait for the water pipe to burst so that they can have some more water for a while. Island Man is broken up into four stanzas with one line at the end on its own. The first stanza is where he is waking up after dreaming about the island and he is slowly coming back from his dream. In this stanza they have used a metaphor wombing, which is actually a made up word, however, this word makes you think that he could have possibly grown up here as the word gives the impression that he feels a sense of safety towards the island and so he could have grown up there. It also uses sibilance with the words Surf, steady and wakes. This creates a calm and gentle mood for the island where Island Man possibly grew up. The second Stanza is also about him waking up from his dream and coming back from the island in his head and also expands on the image created in the first stanza. The first line Wild seabirds gives you the feeling that on this island you are free and you can relax and have fun without being stressed out all the time. There is an adverb defiantly used on the third line to describe the sun Sun surfacing defiantly this is a lexical field, creating the image of independence or refusing to be organized. Also the word emerald has been used to describe the island, this suggests that the island is precious to him and that it has many vivid colours whish are really special to him. Then the last line of the second stanza is stood out from the rest of the poem groggily groggily is used to describe the him coming back from the island to the stress of everyday life, and it emphasises the way that he doesnt want to come back. The third and fourth stanzas are about him waking up from his dream about the island and realises that he is in London and not where he wants to be. Grey metallic soar and Dull, north circular roar are used to describe London as really dull and having a lack of colour, whereas the island appeared to be very colourful, for example Blue surf and sun surfacing defiantly and emerald island. Also in the third stanza the third line stands out from the rest of the poem Surge of wheels, this is describing the sharp sound of London compared to the soft and relaxing sounds of the island. In the fourth stanza, the first and second lines link back to the island muffling, muffling deadens the sharp sounds from earlier in the poem and his crumpled pillow waves, links to the sounds of the island, him thinking his pillow is the waves of the island. And finally the last line in the fourth stanza island man heaves himself which is followed by the last line Another London day, Contrasts with wakes up and shows how much he really is longing to be on that island instead of in London and how he has to pull himself away from his island and begin another London day. The poem Blessing starts with a similie which really emphasises the meaning of the poem the skin cracks like a pod. There is never enough water, onomatopoeia is also used with the word cracks to add emphasis to show how desperate these people are for water. Like Island Man the second stanza expands on the image created within the first two lines. The second line uses onomatopoeia twice, splash and echo. This makes you realise how precious the water is to the people in the poem, especially when it says how they imagine the echo of it in a tin mug on lines 3-6, this really shows there desperation and longing for something everyone else would take for granted. In the third stanza, various metaphors are used to add emphasis to the previous stanza and also create a new image of how they react when they receive more water than they normally have. They describe the water as silver crashing to the ground, this shows how important the water is to the people, especially when the water is described as silver. The people are described as a congregation to again add emphasis and show how much these people want the water and how desperate they are, this is shown again by using another metaphor on the very last line of the third stanza frantic hands, this again shows the desperate people trying to reach for the water. Finally, the fourth stanza describes how fantastic and amazing they find this water by using another metaphor to show how much they treasure the water as the blessing sings over their small bones, also in this final stanza it describes how poor they were and how little they had by saying that the children were naked and their small bones could mean that they are really weak as they dont have much to eat and obviously not enough to drink. Overall the two poems are fairly similar as they are both about people wanting things and longing for something that they dont have. For instance in Island Man he continuously dreams about the island where he possibly grew up and where he wants to be everyday instead of the dull and stressful life that he is currently living in London. Likewise in Blessing the people who live in the poor country have hardly any water and are longing for water. A phrase from each poem could possibly link this to each poem, for example in Island Man on the fourth line it says In his head and in Blessing on the third line it says Imagine. These phrases could indicate to the reader that both poems are about people wanting things that they cant have and are so desperate that they dream about them. However there are differences between the two poems, for instance in the way the poems are written, because Island man has no punctuation apart from a capital letter on the first and last line and also on the first line in the section of poem that starts to describe the city of London. This could be to distinguish between the two different places described in the poem and then the last line of the poem where it shows how he is feeling about waking up for another London day when he really doesnt want to. And also because in Blessing they are longing for something which they need to survive (water), whereas in Island Man he is desperate to go back to the island where he grew up and is precious to him however unlike the people in Blessing, he could actually live without the island, even though he may not want to, although you cant live without water.

Paths Of Life :: essays research papers

The only way to know for sure if a path is right for you is to take and follow the path all the way to the end. Unfortunately life can only allow so many misdirection plays and crossing of paths. There are many paths to choose from and every decision everyday of one’s life can lead further down a path or force you to back up. Many people believe in one path and stick with it while others try to follow every path they get a hint of. Only one person can make this decision of a single or multiple path life and that person is you. There are many paths, but in specific four distinct groups. Every event in life can be placed on one of these four paths.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first major path in life is most closely related to the American Dream. This path takes one through a normal life. As the old American dream clichà © goes one grows up in a family with two stable parents and one other sibling. They go through their school years doing every activity from the second grade play to the senior prom. They eventually go through a four-year college and end up marrying a woman who has had a similar existence. Both work for a job they particularly like and wind up having two children, one boy, one girl and living in suburban America. They have a three-bedroom house, two cares and a wonderful bunch of neighbors. Their children will eventually follow in the same path. This path is the middle of the road path and either has a step up or a step down.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A step down from the American dream path would be the underachiever path. This starts with a person growing up in a somewhat dysfunctional family and winds up hating their early life. This path leads to a bad school experience and a state of anti-social behavior where the person misses every activity from the second grade play to the senior prom. This person will decide not to struggle through college and joins the work force out of high school. This person has no real life and completely hates their job. This person suffers though life in many different areas, which include socially, financially, and emotionally. They will wind up not having a family and will finish their life alone and sad. Thankfully there is always a step up from that crappy old American dream clichà ©.

Vulnerability Assessment

The first thing that must be done to protect a home is to conduct a risk assessment to figure out the potential for threat in the designated neighborhood, vulnerability, and the possibility of consequences of risk occurrence. Three tools that are normally addressed when planning security for any home are: 1. What home security and safety risks are the most typical of the neighborhood for which the assessment is working and what would families be more exposed to? 2. How exposed are the neighborhood residents? Have they taken the necessary precautions to prevent a disaster and to deter all threats? 3. How much could be lost if these precautions have been ignored? To answer the first question it is important to discover the types of crimes that have been committed in the neighborhood most recently. By asking fellow neighbors and local police crime prevention officers, statistics on most common crimes and how that particular neighborhood stacks up to others in the rest of the county can be found. Once a list of possible threats has been established, checking the home for vulnerabilities that would leave it susceptible to a crime or an accident would be the next step in the process. After identifying the vulnerability to these potential threats, a vulnerability assessment on a residence may be conducted. A vulnerability assessment of a home as well as a list of countermeasures and their costs’ is what is required next. Focus on the different directions that potential threats may use and the avenues of approach that they will likely take to threaten property or the area surrounding property. There is a neighborhood watch program that is counted on to support additional observation and early warning. The signal for such a warning is slamming metal object to metal object in a series of three to alert the neighbors as a code to indicate direction and threat. You can better observe your surroundings from your roof or second story. Establishing an observation post/listening post (LP/OP) can be an effective way to gain a superior advantage gaining an elevated advantage in addition to limited access for potential attackers. If your LP/OP has a covered and concealed approach and withdrawal route back to your house, then this would be an ideal location looking out for one another. You probably do not want to open your home to too many family or friends in case of disaster or attack because of the supply of food, ammunition, clean water, and toiletries. There are not many avenues of approach that threats can use in order for them to see straight into the neighborhood or directly to the house so the focus of mitigating this risk is centered around the front and back yards. Place your landscaping like boulders, rock, gravel, trees, and vegetation as well as blinds or curtains can limit the amount of visibility that a threat has to see into your home. Loose gravel placed under the windows, broken windows, and doors will make noise and could possibly spook anyone from attempting a break in. There are not any covered or concealed routes for attackers on foot to approach your house undetected from, so if they did not use a frontal assault they would have to jump the fence in the backyard to try to gain entry through the back door. The visibility from all windows downstairs is limited due to the landscape, but the upstairs has one hundred percent visibility 360 degrees around the entire house. Many dead zones (areas that you cannot see) due to the house being in a sub-division, but no brush will have to be cut down. Windows are easily broken, so keep yourself prepared for Hurricanes, tornadoes, other bad storms with ? to ? inch plywood cut for all windows with mounting hardware. The lighting that you have surrounding your house can have many uses. Illuminating the areas of approach to your house can force intruders to look for a softer target, and it can also give you and your neighbors a better opportunity to give a more detailed description to police when they flee. Mounting your lights with easily re-moveable hardware like wing nuts will assist you if you ever have to relocate them to a more vulnerable part of your residence. Ballistic breaching is the act of using a shotgun to remove the deadbolts from doors, making it possible for attackers to breach the security of your home. Think about installing manmade levers that can latch from the bottom of the door to the floor and the top of the door to the ceiling. This creates a major problem for any intruder because it forces them to stay in the fatal funnel for a longer period before entering your home. The fatal funnel is the area most dangerous for anyone trying to breach a room because it is the smallest area of any room. This creates a better opportunity for the homeowner to defend him or herself by being able to fire a weapons system into a smaller area, reducing the risk of missing the target. The ability to defend your home with small arms does not come cheap. Probably the most expensive cost of any home security tool used is the money you will spend, not only on the fire arm itself, but also the ammunition as well. However, being able to shoot from your home is not as near important as it is for your home to withstand small arms fire. Most homes provide terrible cover (protection) from small arms fire. Aside from sand bagging or laying sheet steel on the walls around your windows, any containers that hold dirt would also do. Wargaming† is a term often used by the U. S. Army before every mission they conduct overseas. The best vulnerability assessment would come from you â€Å"wargaming† various situations based on the environment you live in, then develop countermeasures to mitigate the threats and weaknesses you have determined. Again, call it â€Å"wargaming† or whatever you will, but it is an effective way to look at contingencies and resources nee ded to implement better plans and countermeasures.