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About Author
This poem was composed by English poet Ruth Silcock Pearson . She is famous female poet of modern time. She is originally from Britain. This poem has been written from feminist point of view. In this poem ,the poet has presented famous figures as negative/bad people: They are : Buddha , Mahatman Gandhi, Lord krishna, St .Paul . She also presents painful life stories of Buddha’s wife ,Gandhi’s wife , Christian women and milkmaids of Krishna’s time.
Summary
The Poem “Budhha’s Wife’ is taken from “Poems in our Pocket”. This is written by Ruth Silcock Pearson In this poem, the poetess describes how the wife of Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Christian women and milkmaids passed their time. The poet expresses this to describe their lifestyle focusing how they passed on not to make fun of those women. She gives an example of Mahatma Gandhi, who was a sort of saint. He didn’t seem to spend much time with his wife. He spent insufficient time for his wife. The poet is worried about her life. The another example is of the Christian women wearing hats to hide their face in church and worshiping husbands to make them free from worries. Although doing those, they are always asked to cover their face and moving hair which is very painful for them. The poet gets back to ancient Krishna. The cry and dance of milkmaids to call Krishna on green lawn is evidence the poet wants to express. Finally, the poet expresses, that men have more chances or opportunities to perform an action like raising voice, using rights, touching his grace, etc. than with just limited works of women at home.
• In the first stanza of the poem ,the poet shows her sympathy to Buddha’s wife. Buddha left his palace and wife at midnight . She believes that it must have been really difficult for his wife to spend rest of her life without her husband. He had left the palace in search of supreme knowledge. He was like a selfish person because he only thought about his life and perfection . He didn’t care about her life and happiness. So that, there is his wife’s contribution also to make him Buddha.
• In the second stanza, the poet criticizes Gandhi. He also was like a saint He fought for the nation. He freed India from British empire but he ignored his wife. He could not give time to her. His wife Kasturba died of pneumonia but she did not get care and attention from her husband. If she had got medicine and her husband’s care in time, she could have survived. He refused to give foreign medicine to his wife . Instead of giving foreign medicine, he focused traditional medicine and water from the Ganges. As a result, she died untimely.
In the third stanza , the poet talks about Christian women . Christian women are not free . They have to obey their husband .The father of the church doesn’t like their free activities . They should cover their hair with scarf, or hat or something like that . So they are not given their rights of liberty . The poet criticizes St Paul and other priests of the church .
• In the last / fourth stanza , the poet comments on the activities of Krishna . He created the problems to milkmaids . He tortured them . He used to promise them to meet but could not manage time to meet . Even in Bible , Adam ( man ) has been presented as bold and wise character where as Eve ( girl ) has been presented as weak and stupid girl who was easily moved by Satan’s words . God has created all people giving equal rights but we human beings have divided them as superior and inferior . So , females should be equally treated .
In this way the poetess has expressed the pathetic condition of wives who were mistreated by their husbands.
सारांश नेपालीमा
यो कविता Ruth Silcok Pearsonले लेखेका हुन । यो कविता Poems in Pocket नामक पुस्तकबाट लिइएको हो । यो कवितामा बुद्धकी श्रीमती, महात्मा गान्धीको श्रीमती, क्रिश्चियन महिलाहरू र गोपिनीहरूले कसरी जीवनयापन गरे भनी दर्शाइएको छ । उक्त कवितामा माथि उल्लेखित महान व्यक्तिहरूले आफ्नी श्रीमतीलाई राम्रो र आवश्यक व्यवहार नगरेको र श्रीमतीहरूको जीवन कष्टकर भएको कुरा बर्णन गरिएको छ । उनीहरूले श्रीमतीका लागि समय नदिने गरेकोले श्रीमतीहरूको जीवन पीडादायक भएको थियो भनी उल्लेख गरिएको छ । त्यसैगरी क्रिश्चियन महिलाहरूले सधैं आफ्नो अनुहार hat ले छोप्नुपर्ने कुरा कविले बताएका छन् । त्यसै गरी पौराणिक कालमा कृष्ण नामक देवताले धेरै गोपिनीहरूलाई नचाएको कुरा उल्लेख गरिएको छ । कविले अन्त्यमा महिलाहरूले पुरुषसरह अवसर पाएका छैनन् भनी निष्कर्ष निकालेका छन् ।
यसरी कविले पत्नीहरुको दयनिय अवस्थालाई देखाउन खोजेका छन् जूनकी तिनीहरुकै पतिवाट नराम्रो व्यवहार गरिएको हुन्छ।
Answer the following questions.
a) Make a list of the people who are mentioned in the poem. What is common among all of them?
= The people used or mentioned in this poem are Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and their wives, Christian women, St. Paul, milkmaids and Lord Krishna. The common thing among them all was that they did not have sound conjugal life.
b) Do you also think that Buddha and Gandhi mistreated their wives? Give reasons in support of your answer.
= I agree Buddha and Gandhi mistreated their wives because Buddha left his wife and went to the jungle in search of enlightenment and Gandhi was involved in saint movement, who had nothing to do with his wife.
c) Do you agree with what the poet says in the last stanza? Explain.
= I don’t agree with what the poet says in the last stanza although the poem has been published recently. The time of Buddha is not as that of today’s one. Media and people talk about women right and opportunities.
e) This poem is about the women who are or have been treated badly by men throughout history. Do you think that the poetess is biased to men?
= Yes, of course, when we overview last stanza, as well as all the evidence provided in the poem, it shows that she is biased to men. She has not given any example of men mistreated by women which can be found in a large number.
f) Would you call the poem ‘satirical’, ‘humorous’, ‘sad’ or a blend of all the three. Elucidate.
= I would like to call this poem a blend of satire, humour and sadness. It tells us how women have been maltreated since time immemorial. Even in the religious scriptures, we find that women are limited in the narrow space and they are; presented doing household works and playing weaker roles. The poet has presented the evidences that even the Lords, saints and the great philosophers used to mistreat or suppress their respective wives. Such pitiable fate or condition of female members of society is prevalent in the modern world. We, as readers, feel pity on such miserable situation of women. In this poem, Ruth Silcock presents a bitter satire against the organized patriarchal system or male dominated ideology that has always been dominating female members. Lord Buddha left his wife to live on her own and went away in the name of achieving perfection. The great saint Gandhi had nothing to do with his wife. In the same way, we have a long history in which women have been badly mistreated. The tone of the poem is not only sarcastic and pathetic but also humorous. Such great figures like the Buddha and Gandhi are made fun of in this poem.
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