Appreciating a free-verse poem

Free verse has no fixed rhyme scheme and no fixed line length. Here the long, uneven lines read like a lively list. Just as no two crafts are alike, no two lines are alike; the longer lines describe a vocation in more detail.

The pattern of most lines: name the vocation, then describe it ('The carpenters celebrating; they create anything out of wood…').

Speaker, tone, mood:

• the speaker is an attentive observer who 'hears' Bharat at work;
• the tone (the poet's attitude) is celebratory and reverential (deeply respectful);
• the mood (the feeling it creates) is joyful.

Imagery: visual (crafts in 'myriad hues', boatmen with nets) and auditory (lutes, humming, singing).

Devices:

• metaphor (a comparison without like or as): the cook's delicious singing describes a sound with a taste word;
• personification: a vocation is given a voice;
• repetition: the first line returns at the end, framing the poem like a circle;
• alliteration: the same first sound in words close together: 'varied vocations', 'sailing, and singing' (it is the sound that counts, not the letter);
• symbolism: each vocation stands for a person's identity, skill and pride.