Critical Appreciation of the Poem The Bangle Sellers

Introduction :
The poem entitled The Bangle Sellers belongs to the third section of Indian Folk Songs of her second book. The Bird of Time. This poem is a perfect epitome of typical Indian scene. It draws our attention of the social, religious and symbolic value of the bangles in Indian culture. The wearing of bangles, is suggestive of happiness, joy, peace and prosperity.

The poem glorifies the idea of Indian woman-hood. In the poem, the bangle seller tries to convince the buyers of the spiritual and symbolic importance of his bangles in a traditional Indian setup. Each stage of an Indian woman’s life has been described according to the colour of bangles suitable at that stage from a dreamy maiden to an excited bride and finally to a mature matriarch.

Thought-Content :
Bangle sellers take their load of bangles to the temple fair to sell them. The bangles are termed as ‘lustrous token of radiant lives’ which mean that they are symbols of love and happiness in people’s lives. The bangles are made for happy daughters and wives. The poetess says that some of the bangles are made for the unmarried women and they are of silver and blue in colour. The other bangles made for the bride glow like the fields of com during morning.

Those bangles glow like the bride’s marriage flame and rich in her heart’s desire. The bangles are tinkling with luminous colours like the bride’s laughter or tears. Some bangles are made for the elderly women who have journeyed through half of their life. These bangles are of purpled in colour with gold fleckers. These women have served their household well, cradled their sons and have worshipped the household gods with their husbands beside them.

Moral of the Poem :
The poem stands out as a social message that not only discusses the lives of Indian women but also the lives of bangle sellers. Although the poem focuses extensively on the stages in the life of women, it portrays the lives of the bangle sellers as well. Not once is the poverty or the hardship on their vocation mentioned in the poem save the ‘shining loads’, which denotes the heaviness of the bangles. The bangle seller employs a joyful voice which makes us forget that their livelihood depends on the sale of these bangles. The women in their lives are all portrayed as happy, probably because the happiness of the bangle-seller relies upon the happiness of these women.

Form and Sructure :
The poem is lyrical in tone. It has been written in the style of folk song which glorifies the ideal Indian women. It is a part of the poetess’ folk poetry. It is simple and contains vocabulary and imagery from everyday life and sights. It is remarkable for its verbal melody. It gives expression to the single emotion or feeling of happiness. Like any other good lyric, it is a well-knot poem, possessing a definite structure. It has been divided into four stanzas.

The first provides a setting and introduction. Each of the subsequent stanzas deals with an important stage in an Indian woman’s life. The rhyming scheme adds life to the lyrical folk song of the bangle sellers. In each stanza, first line rhymes with the second, third with the fourth and fifth with the sixth. The rhyme scheme is aabbcc.

The Use of Imagery :
An effective colour imagery has been used by the poetess in the poem. The imagery of‘rainbow-tinted’ bangles has been used to refer to multihued bangles pointing towards different directions of hopes, dreams, youthfulness and aspirations of a woman. The visual imagery of mountain mist is also very profound as the mist on the mountains can be appreciated with its changing colour which is sometimes silver and sometimes blue.

Yellow colour for the bridal morning and red or orange for the bridal night represent passionate longings in heart of a bride. Purple and gold for motherhood represent women’s feelings of pride and fulfilment in her married life. The only auditory image used is ‘tinkling’ which comes into use only when the bangles are worn.

The Use of Figures of Speech :
Metaphors are used to describe the colours of the bangles such ‘Rainbow- tinted circles of light’ and ‘lust-tokens of radiant lives’.

There are some instances of simile :

  1. ‘Some are fluhsed like the buds that dream.’
  2. ‘Some are like fields of sunlit corn.’ ‘
  3. ‘Silver and blue as the mountain mist.’

The poetess has used the figure of speech alliteration in the third stanza of the poem.

‘Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart’s desires
Tinkling, luminous, tender and clear
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.’

Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers

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