Kajari Roychoudhury asked 7 years ago
Find out the poetic devices used in Sarojini Naidu’s poem The Bangle Sellers.
Sarojini Naidu’s poem The Bangle Sellers is rich in the use of imageries and other poetic devices and figures of speech. Those are listed below.
Simile:
Simile is a figure of speech where one thing is directly compared to another using prepositions like ‘as’ and ‘like’.
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Some like the flame of her marriage fire,Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
Metaphor
Metaphor is indirect comparison of two different things where there is a point of similarity.
Rainbow-tinted circles of light
Here, the bangles are compared to a circle of light glowing with different colours.
Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in neighbouring words.
Or, rich with the hue of his heart’s desire
Some are meet for a maiden’s wrist
These can also be taken as examples of alliteration (repetition of consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words) which is a type of consonance.
Imagery
The poem “The Bangle Sellers” is, as already told, full of imageries. The poet has compared the bangles of different colours
Silver and blue as the mountain mist
Some are aglow with the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
In the first example, blue and silver coloured bangles are compared to the mountain mist. In the second example, the bangles are glowing like the bloom that sticks to the green beauty of new-born leaves.
Personification
The poet personifies (attributes human characteristics to something non-human) the ‘buds’ when he says “flushed like the buds that dream“. Being flushed (growing pink in emotion) and dreaming are all human characteristics attributed to the buds.
Hypallage
Hypallage or transferred epithet is a figure of speech where an epithet (adjective) grammatically qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually describing.
“Faithful Breast” in the last stanza are examples of hypallage. Here, the mother’s dependability and faithfulness are attached with the word ‘breast’.
Symbolism
In The Bangle Sellers, the poet has used symbols to describe various stages of woman life and the feelings and emotions attached with those stages.
Silver and blue bangles, like mountain mist, symbolize purity. “Flushed like the buds that dream” indicates the dream of marriage and the shyness of a maiden. Again, red bangles like “flame of her marriage fire” symbolize the passion of her newly made relation.
