Indian Weavers

Indian Weavers
By Sarojini Naidu
WEAVERS, weaving at break of day,
Why do you weave a garment so gay? . . .
Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,
We weave the robes of a new-born child.
Weavers, weaving at fall of night,
Why do you weave a garment so bright? . . .
Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,
We weave the marriage-veils of a queen.
Weavers, weaving solemn and still,
What do you weave in the moonlight chill? . . .
White as a feather and white as a cloud,
We weave a dead man’s funeral shroud.
Indian Weavers’ is a short but beautiful poem written by a well-known Indian

poet Sarojini Naidu. The poem has been taken from the poet’s first collection of
poetry, titled “The Golden Threshold,” which was published in 1905. It is divided
into three quatrains, each with two rhyming couplets.
The flow of language is full of rhythm and word images. The weavers are busy
weaving clothes in different colours throughout the day. Each colour as well as the
timing of the day symbolises different occasions in one’s life. In the morning, they
weave a bright blue coloured cloth for a newborn baby symbolising birth and
happiness. During the day, they weave a bright coloured purple and green cloth for
the marriage veil of a queen signifying life’s celebrations. Finally, at night, they
weave a white coloured cloth for the shroud of a dead body signifying death.
Childhood
In the first stanza, the poet asks the weavers why they are weaving clothes early in
the morning which seem to be quite beautiful and charming (gay). The clothes
are blue as the wing of a halcyon wild. Halcyon is the other name of the kingfisher.
The wings of the kingfisher are bright blue in colour. In addition blue colour also
symbolises loyalty. The blue colour thus symbolises something beautiful and
precious. Hence, in this stanza, the clothes weaved by the weavers are quite special
and this is why the poet is curious to know about them.
The Indian Weavers reply, We weave the robes of a new-born child i.e. they are
weaving the beautiful dress for a young one who has just came to the world.
In this stanza, a number of images are used to describe the first stage of human life
like break of day, garments so gay, & blue as the wing of halcyon wild. This stage
is full of happiness, freshness, hope, beauty etc. There is no sorrow in the stage.
Adulthood
In the second stanza, the poet again meets the Indian Weavers, this time during
the fall of night. It probably refers to the evening or dusk time when the sun sets
and darkness paves the way. Moreover, it is also the time during which most of the
Indian marriages take place.
The poet questions the weavers why they weave a garment so bright like
the plumes of a peacock, purple and green. The garment at this time is bright and
full of colours like feathers of peacock unlike the one colour-blue (during the
morning time).
The weavers reply that they weave the marriage-veils of a queen, thus referring
to the second or in other words adult stage of the life. During this stage, humans
are quite active. They love each other, get married and quest for a better and
prosperous life.
The colours purple and green symbolise sorrow and happiness or struggle and
ease in one’s adult stage and these all colours or ups and downs of life make the
adulthood bright
Death
In the final stanza, the poet finds the weavers solemn and still i.e. they are quite
sorrowful, grieved and silent. They are weaving something weird in the moonlight
chill i.e. in the dead of the night which is White as a feather and white as a cloud,
i.e. colourless, lifeless.
As the poet fails to figure out what it is (the cloth) and why they are sorrowful and
silent, she asks them what are they weaving rather than why are they weaving.
They reply that they are weaving shroud (cloth put on the dead body) for a dead
person. Thus the 3rd and the final stage is death which is emotionless and lifeless
like a white cloud or feather. In this way, the life which begins with life, joy, hope
etc ends with sorrow and grief.
Critical Appreciation of the poem :

The whole poem is highly symbolic. Sarojini Naidu skilfully uses the varied work of the
Indian weavers as symbols of the pattern—grave and gay—woven by life. The
harmony of three different times, day-break, night-fall and moonlight—with the work
woven in each, makes the symbols peculiarly appropriate. The poem introduces an
Indian scene, that of weavers, weaving, particularly in the country-side, cloth on
handlooms in different coloured patterns.
The poem is in a question-answer form. The first two lines of each stanza contain the
question and the last two lines, its answer. At break of day the gay weavers weave the
robes of a new-born child. At fall of night they joyously weave a bright garment.
"Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,

We weave the marriage veils of a queen".
In the moonlight chill the solemn and still weavers weave a dead man's funeral
shroud.
The poem contains three-quatrains, each of whose verse is a tetrameter. The first line
of each stanza begins with two trochees and ends with three iambs. The arrangement
in the fourth line is of two iambs, an anapest, and an iamb. The rhyme scheme is aa,
bb. This is a unique pattern of prosodic rhythm, indeed. The poem is an artistic whole
and is remarkable for its chaste and colourful diction and musical quality.
The whole comedy and tragedy of human life is brought out here. The fates (here the
weavers) are weaving the mingled web (texture) of human life. Belief in fate is almost
a universal mythological phenomenon. In Greek mythology fates appear in the form
of the three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, weaving the threads of birth, life
and death of man. Fates in Indian mythology are embodied in the concept of Brahma,
the God of creation, sitting on lotus coming out of the blue seas and recalling the blue
of the halcyon wings in the the first stanza; Vishnu, the God of prosperity—marriage,
wealth and splendour—recalling the splendour of the peacock plumes of the second
stanza; and Rudra, the God of destruction—death besmirched in ash, corresponding
with the white of the feather in the third stanza. All of them are depicted as engaged
in their respective tasks of weaving the child's robes, the marriage-veil, and the funeral
shroud symbolising birth (creation), prosperity (marriage) and death.
The poem has a complete texture, which is woven into harmonious whole by reference
to birds, variegated colours, different hours of the day, different moods, similes and
images and sound patterns. The halcyon symbolises the spirit at the beginning of the
creation and the sea stands for chaos which the halcyon churns into cosmos for the
purposes of breeding. These two symbols that suggest birth and creation are, indeed,
apt. The gay robes embodying the gaiety of Nature's heart at a newly-born life, the
peacock with its green and purple plumes (feathers) and the nightfall (suggesting, the
hour of expectancy), all go well with the queen's marriage veils, symbolising life's
colour and splendour. The white feather (a feather torn off a dead bird) and the chilly
moonlight and the weavers weaving in solemnity the funeral shroud, suggest
destruction and death.
POETIC DEVICES:
1) Simile:
a) blue as the wing of a halcyon wild
b) white as a feather
c) white as a cloud
d) like the plums of a peacock
2)Alliteration:
a) weavers weaving
b) plums of a peacock ,purple
c) weaving solemn and still

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Indian Weavers

WEAVERS, weaving at break of day,

Why do you weave a garment so gay? . . .

Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,

We weave the robes of a new-born child.

Weavers, weaving at fall of night,

Why do you weave a garment so bright? . . .

Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,

We weave the marriage-veils of a queen.

Weavers, weaving solemn and still,

What do you weave in the moonlight chill? . . .

White as a feather and white as a cloud,

We weave a dead man’s funeral shroud.

Indian Weavers’ is a short but beautiful poem written by a well-known Indian

Critical Appreciation of the poem :

"Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,

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