A Collage of Poems

Wanted: A Broom is a poem by the Tamil poet Chandrakanti. It is a simple narrative poem that describes the pangs of a woman, who details out her suffering. The poem voices the opposition to ‘Sthree-dhanam’- a kind of groom-price offered by the family of the bride to the groom at the time of marriage. The speaker of the poem is a woman. It seems that the woman was in love with a man. When they were in love, the man did not much ponder over the prospect of money. However, when he has decided to enter into the conjugal bliss with her, he enumerates the things that he expects from her or from her family. The list includes gold, money, utensils and goes on to include a broom to sweep the floor. Much angered by this act, the woman says that it is too much and she definitely needs a broom to sweep him off her heart and put him in trash. The woman considers such type of conjugality is only a corporate venture and not life. She is not crazy or a fool to cement such business tie with any male.

Street Dog is a poem by the Punjabi writer Amrita Pritam. It details the failed conjugal relationship between a man and a woman. The separation happened a long time ago and the speaker of the poem, the wife, keeps in her memory only a gruesome act that the separation went to engender. The poem begins with the act of separation. The pair decided to go on their separate ways and to do everything that would leave no trace of their past union. The woman ruminates on the events that happened as they decided to part. They put up their house on sale and started vacating it by scattering their things on the verandah. The woman felt that those things gazed at them and some of them, kept topsy-turvy, decided to cover their heads in shame. She looked at the vine that they had reared and thought that it was trying to say something to them or making a complaint to the water tap. The wife says that none of those things strikes her now and then; conversely she is often reminded of how a straying street dog that had entered into their empty home and was trapped inside and was found on the third day lying dead, when the wife went to show the house to a prospective owner. She is smitten by that sin often, which also serves as an appalling reminder of her erstwhile married-life.

S Usha is a popular Kannada writer. Her prescribed poem To Mother was translated by the notable Indian poet A K Ramanujan. It is a simple narrative poem that speaks out a woman’s mind. The speaker of the poem is a young girl who rises against tradition. She confronts her mother and pleads her to listen to what she has to say. According to the daughter, the traditional fixtures act as a veil to her rising. She wants her mother to take the sari of tradition off to pave way for sunlight and greenery. The mother snubs the daughter of often as the girl has reached seventeen and should not flash her dress in the street, should not look into the eyes of men and should put on girlish character. The daughter pleads to her mother not to play that tune that has been played for years by generations of mothers. She says that she cannot do things like circumambulating the holy plant in the yard, drawing kolams to go to heaven. She wants to go unleashed and unchecked and heed to only her raw energy and to live very different from her mother. The poem ends with the phrase, ‘let go, make way’. The tone of the speaker is one of exhaustion and dismay.

The Handicapped Caught in a Camera is Raghuvir Sahay’s poem that highlights the plight of the differently-abled in the world of able-bodied men and women. There is masochistic pleasure for the strong in humiliating the handicapped. The poet portrays a television programme in which a poor blind man is asked hurting questions. There are questions that want the blind person to answer how he has got that handicap, how it pains and hurts, and how he feels himself a deprived in the world of marauders. The presenter of the programme has only the intention of making the programme interesting. By putting embarrassing questions to elicit response from the participant, he succeeds in reducing him to tears. The success lies in making both the eyes glint with tear-dews. The show takes a nasty turn as it blows up the handicap several times big by close-up angles. The television channel will then gloat at creating awareness after gruelling the poor soul. The poem has an aversive tone that dismisses all these cruel practices in the name of modernity or creating awareness.

Guido Cavalcanti is a Thirteenth century Italian poet. His are simple nature poems with picturesque descriptions. Concerning a Shepherd Maid is narrated by a man who happens to meet a maid in a copse. She is a shepherdess and very beautiful, fairer than any star. She holds a wand in her hand to which the sheep magically oblige. She is rosy and cheerful with waving tresses. The speaker of the poem greets her and is amazed at seeing her all alone in the valley and she replies that she is lonely and when the birds sing she desires for company. At that moment, the birds begin to chirp rousing the maid’s longing for a company. The speaker decides to assuage her longing and offers himself for her kissing and embracing. The remarks of the poet has made her amorous and with a comprehensive willingness she takes him to a natural, flowery abode, where they make love and the speaker could sense the very presence of ‘love’ there.

A Rapture Concerning His Lady is the second of Cavalcanti’s prescribed poems. The poem talks about a good-looking woman. The speaker describes the furore that her presence does. The arrival of her makes the place bright and tremulous. No man could have a gorging sight to ogle her wholesomely. The speaker wants ‘love’ to discourse on her beauty and her looks on the left and right sides of hers. She is of such nature that in the eyes of men all women look ugly. All the virtuous things are under her command and all beautiful things on the world consider her their deity. The men have never been granted this boon by the greater power that they would know her perfectly.

Ode to Retirement is a philosophical poem by the sixteenth century Spanish poet Luis De Leon. The poem features places that promise everlasting happiness. The speaker of the poem is of the opinion that the person who flies away from the noise and cry of the mundane world would be happier, who has chosen the way that leads his soul to virtue and God. He will be calm as he has seen the eternal glitter of the abode of God. In order to reach the feet of God, one has to adhere to the following. One has to disdain flattery and the trump of fame, pageantry of power, and the gaze of the crowds. Having been tormented by all these, the soul wants to escape and fly to God. The prayer of the speaker to God is to lead him from the frowning eyes of the rich that see poverty indifferently and to live all alone in comfort that the heaven could bestow. The dream of the speaker is to live in a garden by the mountainside that is watered by the cascading rill and being amidst the flowers and chirping of birds. However, there at night the howling wind renders the timber and cries rise upward, though they fail in rousing fear in him, as he has given up all earthly things. He reclines in natural abode trying to catch the heavenly tune orchestrated by the master-hands.


Pirate’s Song is another of Spanish poems by the nineteenth century poet of fame Jose De Espronceda. The speaker of the poem is a sea-pirate, who ridicules the customs of the people who never take to sea for their livelihood. The ship of the pirate is known as ‘Dreaded’ by all and she has ten cannons on her board and she is known for greater speed. Its course is towards Istanbul, an historic Turkish port. The ship is dauntless as she has the mettle to face all. The captain of the ship, the pirate, sings that he has conquered a score of ships and hundreds of lords have surrendered to him. He says that his credos are that liberty is his god, the ship is his treasure and the sea is his governed. He considers the land as trifle. He gloats at how others on seeing ‘Dreaded’ veer off the course. He laughs at death and considers howling wind as players of lute. He lulls to sleep by the roll of thunder and growl of the winds.

The Cow is a beautiful ballad by Victor Hugo and has been rendered in English by William Frederic Giese. The setting of the poem is a farm at noon. It is an idyllic scene with clucking hens and mongrels. A cow of superb reddish brown skin and huge in size stands nearby the old man who has chosen to amble in the afternoon heat. She leads her fawn and deliberately lets a group of urchins follow her. The udder of the cow is pendent in shape as it has passed the time to milk. The urchins that have marble teeth and unkempt air squeeze the udder and spurt the milk onto their faces in an attempt to drink. The derelict maid would be without the afternoon quota of milk. The cow is not perturbed as it has allowed the greedy mouths to drink from its udder. She has done it deliberately as a fecund nurse would feed her offspring. The poet finishes the poem with the remark that the cow’s gaze wanders in regions void of thought unmindful to the furore there.

More Strong than Time is a poem by Victor Hugo that depicts the strong will of the male-lover. The male lover who also is the speaker of the poem is courageous to encounter ‘time’. He enumerates the things that have made him achieve such virility. The lover has enjoyed the lips of his lover, has laid his pale face between her hands, has known the soul of hers and its bloom by allowing himself to travel into it. He has also listened patiently to the voice of her heart as it has spoken of its mysterious things. He has also enlivened by her sorrow and happiness. He has seen and imbibed the star-light of hers hanging over his head. More importantly, a rose petal from her heart and days has fallen to him and he has secured it. All these things give him courage to say to the passing time that he will never grow old and as he has a rose in his heart that can never be plucked by the passing of time. The wings of time may hit him but it would never spill the cup fulfilled with love. The poem ends with two remarks of the speaker. He says that his heart more fire and more love than time could frost and make him forget respectively.