1. Blessing
This poem is about water in a hot country, where the supply is inadequate.
Water is seen as a gift from God and when the pipe bursts, it is like a miracle. However, what will happen tomorrow?

2. Blessing
In some Asian countries, it is common for wealthy people to chuck silver coins to the poor.
Can you see where the flow of water is compared to this happening?
What does it suggest that the water means to these people?

3. How does she emphasise that these people are always short of water?
Blessing
Why do you think that Dharker compares human skin to a dried out seed pod?
How does she emphasise that these people are always short of water?

4. Blessing Onomatopoeia
This describes words that sound like what they mean.
Can you find two onomatopoeic words in the second stanza?
Why do you think Dharker chose these words?

5. Blessing Why does Dharker invite us to ‘imagine’ the drip of water?
What is the effect of this rhetorical question?

6. Blessing
In the third stanza, the pace of the poem speeds up – reflecting the rush of water.
How does Dharker use punctuation or the lack of it to show the scramble to collect the valuable water?

7. Blessing
Enjambment is the name for lines that run on from one to the next or from one stanza to the next.
Why do you think Dharker ends the first two stanzas with a full stop but lets the third run into the fourth?

8. Blessing Dharker uses the religious words:
‘god’, ‘congregation’, and ‘blessing’
And words to do with wealth:
‘silver’ and ‘fortune’
How do you think these people feel about water?

9. Blessing
Can you remember a time when you played with water on a really hot day?
How did it make you feel?

10. Blessing
Why do you think Dharker focuses on the children at the end of the poem?
Why do you think she mentions their ‘small bones’ at the very end of the poem?