Page 125 - English Expedition Class 6

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Vocation 1

Rabindranath Tagore

What is the diff erence between one’s vocation and one’s profession? Do you think it is a good idea for
both of them to be the same for a person? Discuss in class.
The speaker of this poem watches various people at work as she goes about her day. Something
about each person’s work attracts her. Who are these people and which common quality in their work
appeals to the child? Read the poem and fi nd out.

2
When the gong sounds ten in the morning and I walk to school
by our lane,
4
3
Every day I meet the hawker crying, ‘Bangles, crystal bangles!’
Th ere 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 aft ernoon I come back from the school,
I can see through the gate of that house the gardener digging
the ground.
5
He does what he likes with his spade, he soils his clothes with
6
7
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.

1 vocation: a type of work that you feel you are suitable for 4 crystal: a type of high-quality glass
2 gong: a round piece of metal hung in a frame and hit with 5 soils (v): makes (something) dirty
a stick to produce a sound. It is often used as a bell, 6 takes him to task: scolds him
especially in schools. 7 gets baked: (here) becomes very hot
3 hawker: someone who sells things from street to street
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