summary of vacation poem
Answers
summary.
The poem describes a child's longing for the freedom he sees in the lives of those around him. When the gong sounds ten in the morning, he walks to his school and sees the hawker crying "Bangles, crystal bangles!" and he wishes he could be a hawker. At four in the afternoon, while coming back from school, he sees the gardener digging the ground and he wishes he were a gardener. When dusk falls his mother sends him to bed and he sees the watchman through the window and he wishes he could be a watchman.
The poem gives us an insight into the working of a child’s mind. Children dislike parental control on their activities. They always hunger for freedom. The freedom of a hawker and a gardener and a watchman fascinates the child narrator in this poem because they are their own masters enjoying the utmost freedom without the slightest rebuke of anybody.
However, the young boy values only freedom without authority. He doesn’t at this point realize what education and discipline would bring to him. Foolishly, the boy does not see the hardships that each worker faces.
i) The hawker yells all day, standing in the same spot trying to sell cheap bangles. Undoubtedly his work is boring and unsatisfying.
ii) The gardener, possibly working for someone else, spends hours doing back-breaking work. His job is dirty and his hands are rough from using gardening tools.
iii) The watchman walks all night without sleep. The streets are shadowy, desolate, and lonely. He has got very tedious job too.
Therefore, the outlook of the boy is obviously childish. Hopefully, time and maturity will enable the boy to find his vocation through his education and commitment to a profession.
The poem 'Vocation' is written by the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore. The poet expresses the thoughts and wishes of a child after observing the diff. persons with diff. professions. The child wants to be a hawker, a gardener, or a watchman because he thinks that these people are free to do whatever they like. He also wants to be free. to do anything at anytime.