Bangle Sellers by Sarojini Naidu
The Bangle Sellers by Sarojini Naidu
Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.
Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow wth the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
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 desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband's side.
Introduction to the Poetess
Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad on 13 February 1879 to Aghorenath Chattopadhyay and Varada Sundari Devi.
Her father was a Bengali Brahmin and the principal of Nizam College. He held a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University. Her mother wrote poetry in Bengali.
Chattopadhyay was educated in Madras, London and Cambridge.
Chattopadhyay returned to Hyderabad in 1898.
That same year, she married Govindaraju Naidu, a physician.
She was drawn to Indian National Congress' movement for India's independence from British rule. She became a part of the Indian nationalist movement and became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj.
She was appointed the President of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and later became the Governor of the United Provinces in 1947, becoming the first woman to hold the office of Governor in the Dominion of India.
Works
1905: The Golden Threshold
1915: The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring
1919: The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and the Spring.
Explanation
The poem Bangle Sellers is a dramatic monologue. The speakers in the poem are the bangle Sellers. They are the people who carry heavy load of bangles on their heads. They go to the temple fair to sell their colourful and lustrous bangles. They call people to buy bangles. Bangles do not merely have decorative function, but they play a very important part in the lives of women. They represent the different stages a woman undergoes from her childhood to youth and maturity.
In the first stanza the bangle sellers are calling out people in some temple fair. They carry on their heads heavy loads of bangles. These bangles are not of the same colours. They are rainbow tinted, bright and delicate. They represent the bright and shiny lives of daughters and wives.
In the second stanza, the bangle sellers tell people that they have all variety of bangles. Some bangles suit most for the wrists of maidans. They have silver and blue colour like that mountain mist which touches the sky. Girls in these age have dreams soaring the sky like that mountain mist..
Some bangles are flushed and shy like the buds that secretly grows on the calm shore of a woodland stream unseen by anyone.
Some bangles however have the colour of new born leaves.
Some bangles are the field of sunlit corn. The colour of these bangles is yellow. These bangles suit to bride on bridal morn.
Some bangles have the colour of her marriage fire, and some are as rich as the desires of bride. A bride has many dreams. She has hopes from her life companion. The fire in her heart thus is a metaphor for her desires. These bangles are tinkling. They are bright, tender and clear. These bangles are as clear as bridal laughter and bridal tears. A bride laughs clearly as she is entering a new life. She dreams of a happy future. On the other hand, she is also bit sad as she is leaving the home of her parents.
The bangle sellers say that some bangles are designed for the middle aged women. The colour of these bangles is purple. Purple is a colour which shows maturity. And the bangles of purple colour with 'gold flecked grey ' suit to these women who have brought up their sons and daughters in the best way , who have stood by their husbands all the times ,who have performed household duties with pride, and who have stood by their husbands worshiping gods.
