WANDERING SINGERS

Learning outcomes
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
●● express how the life of the wandering singers is unique.
●● describe how the singers entertain people as they move.
●● infer the reason behind their joy.

Poem summary:
This is a simple description of some tribal communities in India, the way they live and their outlook
on life. The poet describes their wandering as their response to the call of the wind. Their nomadic
way of life shapes their attitude to life. They see the whole world as their home with no difference
between forests, the wild, the streets, and cities. They see all people as their relatives. What do they do
for a living? They visit villages where they are welcome, sing folksongs of stories from ancient epics
and legends, stories about the valour of kings and the beauty of women and about places that have
lost their glory. They bring alive the greatness of the past to the humdrum lives of the local village
communities through their singing accompanied by a simple musical instrument, the lute.
They have no bonds of love or joy that bind them to a place. They wander wherever they may feed
themselves and their families, leaving their future in the hands of fate.

Pre-reading
●● What do you know about nomadic tribes who sing while they move from place to place?
●● Would you like to settle down in one place or move from place to place? Why

Understanding the Poem
Where the voice…home.
Where do the singers wander about? (Through
forests and cities.) Why do they hold lutes in their
hands? (They strum on the lute to accompany their
singing.) Whom do they consider as their family
and home? (They think of everyone as family and the
whole world as their home.)
Our lays…things.
What do they sing about? (They sing ballads about
beautiful women and the joy in their lives and also
about kings and their battles.) Why do they sing
both happy and sad songs? (People like to listen to
both happy and sad songs. The singers hope they will
be appreciated for the entertainment.)
What hope…fate.
How do the wandering singers describe their
own lives? (They cannot dream of prospering in one
place since they are a wandering tribe.) Why do they
describe their way of life as their fate? (They have
been nomadic tribes for generations and think they
are destined to live without attachment to family or
place.) Do you think they are a happy lot? Why do
you think so?

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 Appreciating the Poem Connotative Expressions:
Rhyme: Every two lines rhyme with each other as in Words associated with royalty: Sword, battles, crown,
couplets: feet-street; roam-home; shed-dead; kings- kings, cities
things; sow-go; wait-fate. The rhyme-scheme is aa, Words associated with wandering singers: Wind,
bb, cc, dd, ee, ff. forest, lute, street
Alliteration: Where-voice-wind-wandering;
simple-sorrowful; where-wind-wandering-we Theme: Detachment from worldly ways can bring
joy.
Repetition: echoing-echoing; what…shall we…?,
what…shall we…?, No…bids us…, No…bids us…,
the voice of…, the voice of…

Post-reading
Discussion:
Form two groups.
●● Group 1: Make a collage of a few people whose inventions have made our lives more comfortable.
●● Group 2: Make a collage of a few people whose ideas have made our lives more spiritual.
●● Spokespersons from each group can talk about the benefits of the two attitudes to life.

QUESTION BANK WITH ANSWER KEY

WANDERING SINGERS

Answer in brief.
What quality of the wandering singers is reflected throughout in the poem?
The poem expresses the lonely, nomadic and selfless life of the wandering singers. They move about
everywhere singing forever for others. They are not attached to anyone in particular. Everyone around
them is family to them. The sole purpose of their life is to spread love and happiness, singing songs of long
lost things. They have no expectations for themselves and move about wherever the wind takes them.

STUDENTS’ BOOK ANSWER KEY

WANDERING SINGERS

Understanding the Poem

1. ‘With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam’
2. Although the wandering singers do not have any permanent home or family, they do not show any
sadness about it. In the line ‘All men are our kindred, the world is our home’, the wandering singers tell
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 us that they consider everyone their family and the whole world their home. So they feel a bond with
everyone and at home anywhere and everywhere.
3. The wandering singers sing about cities which were once great and famous, about the laughter and
beauty of women who died long ago, old battles and kings and of different happy, simple and sad
things.
a. In terms of knowledge, listeners can learn something of history and folklore from the wandering
singers’ songs, as they sing of cities, battles, women and kings from the past.
b. In terms of mood, the listeners can feel fascination, curiosity, admiration, sadness and excitement
as they hear about cities that used to be grand, women who were happy and beautiful, battles
that were bravely fought and kings who were great, but none of whom exist anymore.
4. The wandering singers do not wait anywhere because no close ties or loving relationships make
them stay on at a particular place. Their happiness is not associated with a particular place where they
might want to wait. Instead, the wind, as it moves freely from one place to another, seems to call to
the wandering singers to follow it. The sound of the wind feels like a voice to the singers, calling out to
them to travel to one place one day and another place the next day. Their destinations keep changing,
like the wind. So they keep moving from one place to another.

Appreciating the Poem

1. This poem is written in first person plural—‘we’. The poet did not use ‘I’ because the poem is about a
group of wandering singers—not any specific group, but any or all wandering singers. She does not
use ‘they’ because she wants it to seem as if the wandering singers are speaking to the reader directly,
telling the readers their own story in their own words, rather than someone else talking about the
singers.
2. The words ‘wander’ and ‘roam’ mean walk or move in a relaxed, unhurried manner, with no fixed
purpose. The words ‘march’ and ‘stride’ mean to walk quickly and with a purpose, in a specific direction.
The first two words have been used instead of the others because the wandering singers are never in
a hurry; they have no fixed destination or place to reach. They move in a relaxed pace, going wherever
they feel like going, free to change direction as often as the wind.
3. The rhyme scheme of this poem is aa bb cc dd ee ff.
Suggested answer (accept any logical answer): The poem does sound like a song when read aloud.
4. Yes, these repetitions are particularly suitable for a poem about singing because these words bring
a lyrical quality to the poem. They remind the reader of different things associated with sounds and
music, such as echoes, voices and the wind, which also has songs of its own.
5. a. i and iii contribute to the sorrowful mood of the poem. ii and iv contribute to the happiness.
b. v helps to make the figures of the wandering singers look timeless—the singers have always
travelled and will always travel; even when some singers stop, others take their place, so that it
seems as if the singers belong to every age and do not change or disappear with time.

Going Further
Free response.

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