68 ELIXIR

gathering S'""'i'ows • The swallows make a twittering sound as they ass

".., ,, ••• • ernb1
skies for their annual migration (before winter sets in). e

Comprehension
A. Answer the following questions in about 50-80 words each.
l . What are the different locations where Autumn can be seen?
2. List the images of ripeness and fullness in stanza I .
3. Comment on the visual and auditory images in the poem.
4. How is Autumn personified in stanza 2? Is the gender specified?
5. Why does Keats encourage us not to think too much of Spring?
B. Answer the following questions in about 150-2 50 words
each.
l. The poem is about acceptance and hope: substantiate this idea
with your reading of the poem.
2. Consider Keats as a nature poet.
3. From the poem, can you characterise the poet? What
are his essential attitudes to time, nature, mortality, and
impermanence?
4. Discuss Keats as a poet of the senses, choosing examples of his
appeal to sight, touch and sound.
5. The poet looks upon autumn both as a continuation of summer
and as a prelude to winter. Explain this paradox.

•N~••I•
Bangle Sellers
Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was born in Hyderabad, India, in

a highly educated Bengali family. She was sent to England for
university education. There she met Edmund Gosse and showed
him some of her poems. He encouraged her to w;ite on Indian
the~es. H~n~ef~rth she anchored her poetry In the culture of
India. SaroJim Naidu was an active participant in India's freedom
-
POETRY 69
movement. She "d was an outstanding p ubl"IC speaker: and was
elected &.Pres, ent of m '1925 She
, the Indian National Congress .

wor.ked ,or womens education and franch"ise, an d campaigned.·

against
. purdah. She
. became
. the Governor of Uttar pra des h ·m
independent India. Naidu was recognised as a major poet ·th
the publication of her first book of poetry The Golden Thres;~ld
(1905). Mahatma Gandhi hailed her as Bharat Kokila ("The
Nightingale of Indian).
'Bangle Sellers' is from a group of poems with the title 'Indian Folk
Songs' in her second collection, The Bird of Time (1912). Poems like
'Coromandel Fishers~ 'Palanquin Bearers' and 'The Indian Weavers'
successfully employ poetic similes and metaphors to create a
vivid picture of life in India. 'Bangle Seilers' is a poem which falls
into the same category. With their differe~t colours and designs,
the bangles cater to different types of buyers. Sometimes they
decorate the wrists of a new bride and at other times a young
girl's or those of an older woman.

Bangle-sellers are we who b~ar

~~'"'
W o.,Q.,\.~
Our shining loads to the temple fair.
Who will lJuy these delicate, bright l ,
Rainbow-tinted circles of li ht? \ p ~,11')!1..vj J~v---'~
,~ Lustrous tokens o ra<fiw.t lives, );)&
5/r- For happy daughters and happy wives.

Some are meet for the maiden's wrist, ,

Silver and blue as the mountain mi_st,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
<0>\11~ On the tranq!!il brow of a woodland stream;
Some are aglg_w with the bloom that cleaves
l~rtioW>To the limpid glory of new-born leaves.
d av , ~ peAJJWVJ-
Some are like fields of sunlit com,
Meet for a bride on her bridal mom,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,

-
e,0\0\lA.-
Or rich with the hue of her heart's desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
 7
70 EUXIR ,~
Some are purple and gold-flecked grey,
For her who has journeyed through life mi:ww
Whose hands have cherished, whose love as est
And cradled fair sons on her faithful br~a~t,
Who serves her household in fruitful pnde,
And worships the gods at her husband's side. \ _ /

Glossary .
rainbow-tinted : glass that has the different colours of a rainbow
lustrous : shining, gleaming
meet : suitable
tranquil : calm and soothing
cleaves : stays close
limpid : clear, transparent
hue : shade, colour
luminous : shining, giving out tight
gold-flecked : spotted with golden colour

Comprehension
A. Answer the following questions in about 50-80 words each.
I. Why does the poet refer to the bangles as 'rainbow-tinted circles
of light'?
2. What are the bangles tokens of?
3. Whom are the purple and gold-flecked grey bangles meant for?
4. blest'.
EXplain the line 'whose hands have cherished, whose love has
-
S. Identify any three similes in the poem.

B. Answer the following questions in about 150-250 words each.

Describe the different types of bangles which the bangle-sellers
1. carry.

2. aged?
How does the poet describe the faithful wife who is now middle-

3. from
Whatthe
image of the bangle buyers at the temple fair do you gather
poem?

4. How does the poet use metaphors and similes to conjure vivid
imagery? Support your answer with examples from the text.
5. How does the bangle seller enhance the quality of life of simple
people and bring joy and colour to it?
 POETRY 73

A Psalm of Life
H. W Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was one of America's

best-loved and most popular poets. His most famous works
include The Song ofHiawatha, 'Paul Revere's Ride' and Evangeline.
Longfellow travelled all over Europe.before beginning his career
as a college professor. His lyric poetry is reminiscent of English
Romantic poetry and other traditional European styles, and often
presented stories of mythology and legend. The popular appeal
of Longfellow's poetry is mainly due to the natural grace and
beauty of his verse, and also because of the simple themes, the
spirit of joy, optimism and faith in the goodness of life that is so
characteristic of his poetry. The following poem is characteristic
of his style.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

·~1if), ~'ti
0·!- ~
,,,.._::> ...
; n U>ru't?\
5-· J

Life .is but an empty dream!- 11

cl\ ~t ~ekd )eef1 .)

For the soul is <lead that slur.gl>ers, yJ'\cx

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though-stout and brave, (2.,

6~
74 ELIXIR

, -
Still like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,

r,_~ •
In the bivou~ f Life, ~wrt\-W ·rv- S-c,l ·
Be not like dumb, driven cattl~1 ,.,...J,., \
Be a hero in the st!!fe1 cc11 ~cl-) r-·

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant1

Let the dead Past bury its dead1
Act,-act in the living Present1
Heart within, and God o'erhead1

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

-
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.

Glossary
psalm a song or hymn in praise of God
mournful expressing deep sorrow
numbers (here) verses, poems or songs
empty dream worthless, meaningless
slumber sleep; here, to be inactive
earnest that which needs to be taken seriously
Dust .. . returnest a reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible, where
God tells man:'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt th~u
return~ The poet reminds the reader that this was said
76 EUXIR

3 Wh t dvice does the poem conclude with?

· Th a a talks of death and of the brevity of life. Would you say
4. epoem . . . JG·
that the tone of the poem is pessumst1c or not. 1ve reasons for
your answer. lifi
Throughout the poem, Longfellow com~ares e to. a number
S. of things. Can you identify these compansons and pomt out the
implications of each?

UJ~••tl
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman

Walter'Walt'Whitmari (1819-92) was one of the most influential

poets in American literature. Whitman had only a few years of
formal education before working as an office boy for several
lawyers. He later worked as a typesetter for newspapers and
journals. Whitman was determined to become a writer, and his
most famous work, Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems, was
first published in 1855. He continued to expand and revise this
collection until his death. Leaves of Grass remains a milestone in
the American literary canon, and has been read and appreciated
by generations of readers and critics. Whitman is considered a
trailblazer in both the form and content of his poetry.

'O Captain! My Captain!' was written by Whitman in 1865; and

included in Leaves of Grass, when he published its fourth edition
in 1867. The poem is an elegy, written to moum the death of
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States, .
who was assassinated in April 1865. The American Civil War
(1861-65) was fought between the Northern and the Southern
state~ of America over the issue of slavery in the United States.
Both Whitman and Lincoln were opposed to the continuation
of slavery. Lincoln was .killed two months after the war ended.
The poem mourns the death of Lincoln, and praises his efforts
that finally unified a fractured nation. It a1so points out the irony
that the nation lost its leader just when it had come through a
 POETRY 77

turbulent period. It underlines the fact that the nat·10n owes ·its ..·~. - -. --
stability to its 'father~ Lincoln. ~- ---_ -- \'-~
__\

O Captain1 my Captain1 our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, .Jt"-o'\
The port 1s near, the bells I hear, the people all e~ ting, .# 's,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring·
- """~4, If\\'\ ·-i,, fl'.,,., '
But O heart1 heart1 heart1 1t,ctllt'fl lL c)
0 the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fall~n ,cold and dead.

0 Captain1 my Captain1 rise up and hear the bells; (\'" .

Rise up--for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wrea~ -for you the shores a-
crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain1 dear father1

This arm beneath your head1
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, ·he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

.
But I with mournful tread,
Walle the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Glossary
weather'd weathered, faced and withstood with courage
rack the destruction or co11apse of something
exult to express great joy