Question

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.

Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.

Explain with reference to context.

Answer 1

The lines given above are from the poem The Bangle sellers by Sarojini Naidu. This 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.

A bangle-seller talks about the various kinds of bangles he carries with him, and about the women that buy them. The poem describes the everyday life of bangle-sellers as well. The speaker of the poem is one such bangle seller and in the first two lines he describes what it is like to carry precious, ‘shiny loads’ of bangles to the temples, fairs and other such places where women can buy them. The third line is akin to a bangle seller’s cry for the sale of his bangles. He calls out to women who might buy these bangles. He thinks these bangles are the tokens of happy lives and happy marriages.