Vocation (Poem) by 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!”

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.

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 streetlamp
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 street
all night, chasing the shadows with my lantern.

Summary of the Poem

The child walks to his school at ten in the morning. Everyday he meets a bangle-seller. The man goes about at ease all day long. The child is tempted to adopt the vocation of that happy hawker.

In the afternoon the child comes back from the school. He sees a gardener working with spade in a kothi. The gardener is his own master. He soils his clothes and gets wet in the rain. But nobody scolds or punishes him. The child wishes he too were a gardener, free to do what he liked.

At night the child sees the watchman on duty. The lone man carries a lantern and keeps walking in the lane all night. The child envies the watchman. He too wants to go about freely and do what he likes.

Questions

1. Who is the speaker in the poem? Who are the people the speaker meets? What are they doing?

The speaker in this poem is a school-going child. Every day he happens to meet the hawker selling bangles, the gardener digging away at the garden, and the watchman walking the street all night.

2. What wishes does the child in the poem make? Why does the child want to be a hawker, a gardener, or a watchman?

The little child is innocent. He watches the people keenly around him. He is sick of checks on his movement. He wants to enjoy the same freedom as do the hawker, the gardener, and the watchman. They do what they like.