The Bangle Sellers
Sarojini Naidu
(née Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949)
(née Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949)
poem Class 8th Tulip Series
JKBOSE Solutions For Class 8 English poem 3
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 with 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
- Sarojini Naidu
JKBOSE Solutions For Class 8 English poem 3
The Bangle Sellers:
Stanza wise Explanation
Stanza 1
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.
The poem begins with the speakers introducing themselves as bangle sellers who sell their articles at the temple fair. They call out to the people to buy their bangles. These hawkers describe their bangles as delicate, bright, rainbow-tinted circles of light. They advertise by questioning who will buy these bangles for their daughters and wives.
It is important to note here that though the speakers of the poem are several, it appears as if there is a single speaker. This is due to the fact that they all have the same purpose and are thus seen singularly as a ‘class essence’. Also, the Bangles here are called ‘lustrous tokens of radiant lives‘. It shows us the Indian tradition, where bangles are bought on special occasions and are associated with happiness and prosperity of daughters and wives.
Stanza 2
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 with the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
The second stanza onward, the speakers talk of the kinds of bangles they have. Some of these bangles are suited for a maiden’s, that is, a young unmarried woman’s wrist. They are Silver and Blue in colour like the mountain mist. Some of them are ‘flushed’, that is pink and light red in colour like flower buds growing beside a woodland stream. Still others are green and glowing like the transparent beauty of new born leaves.
In Indian society, bangles have an important cultural and religious place. Different coloured bangles are worn by women in different stages of life. Blue, Silver, and Green are generally worn by young maidens. It is interesting to note that the poet here uses the words ‘flushed like the buds that dream.’ The word ‘buds’ here is suggestive of chastity. ‘Buds that dreams‘ present before us an image of young girls dreaming of marriage. In this stanza, the poet presents the stage of youth in a woman’s life.
The Bangle Sellers:
Class 8th
Stanza 3
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.
In the third stanza, the bangle sellers say that some of their bangles are yellow like ‘fields of sunlit corn‘. Bangles of this colour are perfect for a bride on her bridal morn. Some of the bangles they have are bright red. They represent the flame of a newly turned bride’s marriage fire, that is, the passion of her newly made relation. The red bangles also stand for her heart’s desire. The bangles are ‘tinkling, luminous, tender and clear’. They express both her joy of starting a new life with her husband and the sorrow of leaving her parents behind.
What we find striking is the use of the words ‘bridal laughter and bridal tears.’ These words convey the whole of a woman’s transition in life from a maiden to a wife and all the emotions attached with it in a single line. This stanza marks the transition of life from a maiden to a wife.
Stanza 4
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.
In the final stanza of the poem The Bangle Sellers, the speakers continue to advertise their bangles. They shout that some of their bangles are purple and gold flecked grey. These are suited for a middle-aged woman who has ‘journeyed through life’. They are for her who has raised her children well, and has remained faithful to her husband and family. These bangles are, they say, perfect for she who has maintained her household with pride and “worships the gods at her husband’s side“.
The Bangle Sellers
poem Class 8th Tulip Series
Thinking about the poem
Questions Answers
Q.1 Who is the speaker in the poem?
Ans. A bangle seller is the speaker in the poem.
Q.2. How are the bangles described in the first stanza of the poem and who are these bangles for?
Ans. In the first stanza, the bangles are described as shining, delicate and bright. They are described as rainbow-tinted circles of light and as tokens of radiant lives. These bangles are for happy daughters and happy wives.
Q.3. The poet uses different similes for the bangles. What are these?
Ans. The poet compares the bangles to the mountain mist, to the flower buds, to the fields of sunlit corn, bridal laughter and to the bridal tear.
Q.4. Name the different colours mentioned in the poem. What do they represent?
Ans. Rainbow colours, silver, and blue, sunlit corn colour, purple and gold-flecked grey are the different colours mentioned in the poem. These colours represent the bangles suitable for different age groups of women.
Q.5. The word “some” has been repeated in the poem. What is it?
Ans. The word ‘some’ represents the different types of bangles being sold by the bangle seller.
Q.6. Explain the following lines.
Some are meet for maiden’s wrist
Silver and blue as the maintain mist
Ans. In these lines, the narrator says that some bangles are suitable for the wrist of unmarried women. Some bangles are of silver and blue colour as the mountain that is under a blanket of mist.
Long Answers Questions
Q. What are the kinds of bangles suited to young maidens?
Ans. The poem ‘Bangle Seller’ explores the imagery associated with bangles and it also speaks about women’s role in Indian society. It speaks about the strong connection between the bangles and their role in providing ‘happy daughters and happy wives’. The maiden girl likes silver and blue bangles like the mountain mist. Some girls are having countless dreams and so they are the buds. These girls are like a stream that flows in a woodland area. Some girls have the glow like fresh and transparent newly split leaves.
Q. What is the function of bangle sellers as seen in the poem “Bangle Sellers”?
Ans. The Bangle seller is selling various kinds of bangles. The bangles are delicate, colourful bright circles of light. He says that these bangles are bright and shining tokens of life. The poet repeats the word happy in ‘for happy daughter and happy wives’ to indicate that the daughters look forward to their happy marriage and the wives are happy in their married life. He has brought bangles for all the three stages in the life of an Indian woman- a maiden, an expectant bride and finally, a matured married woman. The bangle seller actually understands the choice and dreams of all the three stages in the life of an Indian woman.
LANGUAGE WORK
I. Read the poem once again and fill in the blanks as in the poem:
Bangle seller, sunlit corn, flecked grey, rainbow-tinted
Ans.1. Bangles are said to be as rainbow-tinted circles of light.
2. Some are like fields of sunlit corn.
3. Some bangles are purple and gold-flecked grey.
4. People buy these bangles from the bangle-seller.
II. The poet has used several expressions that form pictures in the reader’s mind i.e., “fields of sunlit corn” and “circles of light”. Pick out more such expressions from the poem.
Ans. Some more expressions are:
i. the maiden’s wrist.
ii. the mist of mountain.
iii. the flame of her marriage fire.
iv. bridal laughter and bridal tear.
III. Use the clues to complete the word pyramid:
