The poem 'Vocation'

Open your book, Santoor, at page 105 and read the poem 'Vocation'. It goes on to pages 106 and 107. It was written by Rabindranath Tagore. A vocation is the work a person does in life. Read it aloud, or ask someone to read it with you.

The speaker of the poem is a child who goes to school. The poem has three parts, one for each time of the child's day, and in each part the child sees a worker and wishes to be that person.

Part one: at ten in the morning, when the gong sounds, the child walks down the lane to school. Every day the child meets a hawker calling out that he is selling crystal bangles. Nothing makes the hawker hurry. He has no road he must take, no place he must go and no time to be home. The child wishes to be a hawker, spending the whole day on the road selling bangles.

Part two: at four in the afternoon, coming back from school, the child sees a gardener through the gate of a house, digging the ground with his spade. He gets his clothes dusty, and nobody scolds him if he is baked in the sun or gets wet in the rain. The child wishes to be a gardener, digging away with nobody to stop him.

Part three: when it gets dark and the child's mother sends the child to bed, the child sees a watchman through the open window, walking up and down. The lane is dark and lonely, and the street lamp looks like a giant with one red eye in its head. The watchman swings his lantern, walks with his shadow beside him, and never goes to bed. The child wishes to be a watchman, walking the streets all night and chasing the shadows with a lantern.