UNIT 3 Worksheet 3:

Descriptive poem and prose

Blessing
The skin cracks like a pod.
There never is enough water.
Imagine the drip of it,
the small splash, echo
in a tin mug,
the voice of a kindly god.
Sometimes, the sudden rush
of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues. From the huts,
a congregation: every man woman
child for streets around
butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium,
plastic buckets,
frantic hands,
and naked children
screaming in the liquid sun,
their highlights polished to perfection,
flashing light,
as the blessing sings
over their small bones.
Imtiaz Dharker

1 a Explain in your own words the five images in bold.

the skin cracks like a pod

the voice of a kindly god

silver crashes to the ground

the liquid sun

the blessing sings

© Cambridge University Press 2013 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 1
 UNIT 3 Worksheet 3: Descriptive poem and prose

b There are three other images in the poem. Can you find and explain them?

2 What is the effect of the list in verse two?

3 How has the layout and punctuation of the poem captured the action of the burst
water pipe?

4 Write a sentence to summarise why the poem is called ‘Blessing’.

5 Write your own short poem about gushing water.

© Cambridge University Press 2013 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 2
 UNIT 3 Worksheet 3: Descriptive poem and prose

© Cambridge University Press 2013 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 3
 UNIT 3 Worksheet 3: Descriptive poem and prose

Seaside
I used to sit where the water rolled in, rolled in, its frilled white edge nibbling at
the sand, withdrawing to leave great damp half moons of a darker, more brownish
beige. I would sit inside one of these curves, at the very midpoint, fitting my body
to its contour, and wait. The sea unceasingly shifts and stirs and sends out fingers,
paws, tongues to probe the shore. Each wave coming in is different. It separates
itself from the vast, moving blue, rises and surges forward with a low growl,
lightening as it approaches to a pale green, then turns over to display the white
frill that slides like a thousand snakes down upon itself, breaks and skitters up the
sandbank. I used to sit very still. Sometimes the wave would barely touch my feet,
sometimes it would swirl around me then pull back, sifting yet another layer of
sand from under me, leaving me wet to the waist. My heels rested in twin hollows
that filled, emptied and refilled without a break. And subtle as the shadow of a
passing cloud, my half moon would slip down the bank – only to be overtaken
and swamped by the next leap of foaming white.
From ‘Sandpiper’ by Ahdaf Soueif

1 Underline the use of repetition in the passage. Explain its effect.

2 What is the dominant letter/sound in the passage? Circle its use and explain its
effect.

3 What are the waves compared to in the passage?

4 What can you say about the sentence lengths and structures in the passage?

5 Write a half-page description of the movement of water in the sea, a river, or a

waterfall, in a place you know.

© Cambridge University Press 2013 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 4
 UNIT 3 Worksheet 3: Descriptive poem and prose

© Cambridge University Press 2013 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 5