Indian Weavers (By Sarojini Naidu)

About the poem

A.  Read to understand

1. Fill in the columns based on your reading of the poem.

2. Answer the following questions.

     a)   What three events are referred to in the poem? Can you guess the three stages of human life indicated by these events?

      Ans. The three events referred to in the poem are birth, marriage and death. The three stages of human life indicated by these events are childhood, youth, and old age.

     b)   With what do the weavers compare the garments being woven by them? 

     Ans. Weavers compare the robes of a new-born child with the wing of a halcyon bird, marriage-veils of a queen with the feathers of a peacock and dead man’s funeral shroud with white feather and cloud.

     c)   Do you think the weavers are affected by what they are weaving? Give a reason for your answer.

      Ans. Yes I think the weavers are affected by what they are weaving because they are happy, fresh and full of hope while weaving robes of a new-born child, they are happy and more active while weaving marriage-veils of a queen and they are serious and calm while weaving dead man’s funeral shroud.

B.  Discuss

     1.   What is the difference between fashion and style?

      Ans. Difference between fashion and style

  (Answer may vary)

     2.   Clothes and accessories have a language of their own. What things do they express or help communicate?

      Ans. Clothing and accessories send a message. They can communicate our occupation or an occasion we’re marking, our socio-economic status, our values, our character and our attitudes.

    (Answer may vary)

     3.   Once Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and in reply to the magistrate’s enquiry about his occupation, he said, ‘I am a spinner, a weaver, and a farmer.’ Find out and discuss Mahatma Gandhi’s view on the weaving profession in India.

Check this web page for help: http://www.mkgandhi.org/bahurupi/chap13.htm

 Ans. To him, the practice of swadeshism, the use of things produced locally was the foundation of swaraj. To make his countrymen self-reliant and self-sufficient was his life's mission. For attaining that he laid certain conditions. He did not want to add more mills for producing swadeshi cloth. A mill is owned by a capitalist, parts of its complicated machinery are imported from outside, it robs the use of hands of many bread earners and exploits the mill hands the labourers are uprooted from their native place and work mechanically like robots. Gandhi wanted to revive hand-weaving.

(Answer may vary)

C.  Read to appreciate

     1.   What is the stanzaic pattern of the poem?

       Ans. Quatrain

     2.   What is its rhyming scheme?

       Ans. Its rhyming scheme is AABB

     3.   How many rhyming couplets does the poem have?

       Ans. 6

     4.   List all the pairs of end rhymes in the poem.

       Ans. day-gay, wild-child, night-bright, green-queen, still-chill, cloud-shroud

     5.   Give three examples of alliteration from the poem.

       Ans. Weavers – weaving, peacock-purple, wing-wild