Q1.
Let us Recite — Vocation. Read the poem aloud and enjoy it.
Answer
Here is the whole poem, exactly as it is printed on pages 105, 106 and 107. Read it aloud once. Then read it again slowly, and this time picture each scene in your mind.
(1)
When the gong sounds ten in the morning and I walk to school by our lane,
Every day I meet the hawker crying, “Bangles, crystal bangles!”
There is nothing to hurry him on, there is no road he must take, no place he must go to, no time when he must come home.
I wish I were a hawker, spending my day in the road, crying, “Bangles, crystal bangles!”
(2)
When at four in the afternoon I come back from the school.
I can see through the gate of that house the gardener digging the ground.
He does what he likes with his spade, he soils his clothes with dust, nobody takes him to task if he gets baked in the sun or gets wet.
I wish I were a gardener digging away at the garden with nobody to stop me from digging.
(3)
Just as it gets dark in the evening and my mother sends me to bed,
I can see through my open window the watchman walking up and down.
The lane is dark and lonely, and the street-lamp stands like a giant with one red eye in its head.
The watchman swings his lantern and walks with his shadow at his side, and never once goes to bed in his life.
I wish I were a watchman walking the streets all night, chasing the shadows with my lantern.
— Rabindranath Tagore
When the gong sounds ten in the morning and I walk to school by our lane,
Every day I meet the hawker crying, “Bangles, crystal bangles!”
There is nothing to hurry him on, there is no road he must take, no place he must go to, no time when he must come home.
I wish I were a hawker, spending my day in the road, crying, “Bangles, crystal bangles!”
(2)
When at four in the afternoon I come back from the school.
I can see through the gate of that house the gardener digging the ground.
He does what he likes with his spade, he soils his clothes with dust, nobody takes him to task if he gets baked in the sun or gets wet.
I wish I were a gardener digging away at the garden with nobody to stop me from digging.
(3)
Just as it gets dark in the evening and my mother sends me to bed,
I can see through my open window the watchman walking up and down.
The lane is dark and lonely, and the street-lamp stands like a giant with one red eye in its head.
The watchman swings his lantern and walks with his shadow at his side, and never once goes to bed in his life.
I wish I were a watchman walking the streets all night, chasing the shadows with my lantern.
— Rabindranath Tagore
Who wrote it. The book prints the poet’s name at the end of the third stanza, on page 107: Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore wrote in Bengali and in English. This poem comes from his book of poems about children.
What happens, stanza by stanza:
- Morning, ten o’clock. The gong sounds. The child walks to school by his lane and meets the hawker selling crystal bangles. Nobody hurries the hawker. The child wishes he were the hawker.
- Afternoon, four o’clock. The child comes back from school. Through a gate he sees the gardener digging. Nobody scolds the gardener for getting dirty, hot or wet. The child wishes he were the gardener.
- Evening, after dark. The child is sent to bed. From his window he sees the watchman walking up and down with a lantern. The child wishes he were the watchman.
Why the child keeps wishing: Look at the three times — ten in the morning, four in the afternoon, dark in the evening. The child’s whole day is decided by a clock and by grown-ups. The three workers, seen for a moment from outside, look free. That is what he is really longing for — freedom, not the work itself.
Tip for reciting: Say the first three lines of each stanza in a plain, watching voice, as if you are telling a friend what you saw. Then say the last line — “I wish I were …” — slowly and a little more softly. That last line is the child’s dream, and it should sound like one.
A picture to notice: “the street-lamp stands like a giant with one red eye in its head”. This is a simile — one thing described as being like another. The tall lamp-post is the giant’s body and the glowing lamp is its single red eye.