Under  Graduation-­I  Year  

 

SUBJECT:  English  Language    

TOPIC:  Muliebrity - By Sujata Bhatt  
Duration:    
 
 

 
 

 
  
 

Muliebrity - By Sujata Bhatt

Introduction to the poet:

Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad in 1956 , and grew up in Pune, after which
she left for the United States when her family migrated to that country. Sujata
Bhatt is an Indian poet and a native speaker of Gujarati. She is a well-read and
loved poet, and among her best known poems is ‘Search for My Tongue’,
describing the language conflict within her. This poem may be found in a section
of compulsory reading for 14-16 year olds in the UK, entitled “Poems from
Different Cultures”. Several students have expressed their gratitude to Bhatt for her
portrayal of the Indian cultural ethos, as it has helped them better understand
people hailing from an Asian background.

Bhatt has evolved into a poet who has received international recognition, winning
the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and several other noteworthy awards for her
work. She currently works as a freelance writer in Germany , where she lives with
her husband and daughter.
Bhatt has done a fair amount of translation work, from German to English and
from Gujarati to English. Combining both Gujarati and English, Bhatt writes
“Indian-English rather than Anglo-Indian poetry.” She is a widely published poet
all across the English-speaking world.
Her poems explore themes like love, violence, racism and other experiences from
her childhood in India. Bhatt writes, “For some reason, (I’m not sure why), my
imagination seems to be continually sparked by those early years in India. I think
for many writers, their childhood is something very magical and special and they
keep drawing from that for their work. For me the fact that I had to leave India
certainly made me think about it more.”

Style:
The most noticeable aspect of Bhatt’s style is her use of free verse. This makes the
poem flow like an unending thought, a stream of memories. Michael Schmidt, a
critic, has observed that her “free verse is fast moving, urgent with narratives,
softly spoken. Her cadence is natural, her diction undecorated.” She has been
  
 
recognized as one of the finest poets alive today with a distinctive contemporary
voice.
The simple tone of the poem seems to be consciously or deliberately used by the
poet as it most authentically describes the simplicity of the ethnic girl’s life. It’s a
simple situation that is yet so profound.
The poem is made up of 18 lines and consists of 2 sentences, of which only 1 is a
complete sentence. The sentences appear fragmented like the memories of the poet.
It reflects the stream of consciousness mode of recollection of thoughts, in a
natural order, as they occurred to the mind of the poet. The continuous sentence
without a pause is known as enjambment, and it also s significant as it recounts a
long string of associated memories stored by the poet. Even though it is not a
proper sentence, through the use of this device the poet permits us a chance to read
his mind.

Bhatt has been described as a ‘sensual’ poet as the reading of this poem appeals to
the sense of smell, evoking smells that are typical of a particular environment,
which is the setting of the poem.

Introduction to the poem:

The title of the poem, ‘Muliebrity’, is a Latin word that aptly describes the theme
that Bhatt explores. It stands for the state or quality of being a woman, or the
features of a woman’s nature. In particular, it describes the feminine form of an
adult woman, forming a contrast with maidenhood. To explain it further, just as
masculinity is the coordinate term for femininity, virility is the coordinate term for
muliebrity.
So, as the title indicates, the poem is about womanhood or the qualities of a
woman. The poem was written around the early 60s and describes the routine of a
young girl living in rural India.
The poem talks about the raw power of a woman and how this force of nature
seeps through even the most mundane of jobs that a woman might do. This young
girl, a typical representative of a village woman, does a tedious job of collecting
cow-dung outside a temple, day after day. Yet, she does it exhibiting ‘greatness’
and ‘power’.
The poet is touched by the girl’s commitment and dedication to her work.
Something about the girl’s demeanor arouses awe in the poet, as she is amazed at
the young girl. Her attitude conveys a positive perception of work, no matter what
that work entails.
  
 

The Poem:
Muliebrity by Sujata Bhatt

I have thought so much about the girl

who gathered cow-dung in a wide, round basket
along the main road passing by our house
and the Radhavallabh temple in Maninagar.
I have thought so much about the way she 5
moved her hands and her waist
and the smell of cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies,
the smell of monkey breath and freshly washed clothes
and the dust from crows’ wings which smells different –
and again the smell of cow-dung as the girl scoops 10
it up, all these smells surrounding me separately
and simultaneously – I have thought so much
but have been unwilling to use her for a metaphor,
for a nice image – but most of all unwilling
to forget her or to explain to anyone the greatness 15
and the power glistening through her cheekbones
each time she found a particularly promising
mound of dung –
Line 1-4:
I have thought so much about the girl
who gathered cow-dung in a wide, round basket
along the main road passing by our house
and the Radhavallabh temple in Maninagar.

The first sentence of the poem sets the scene by describing to the reader the
location of the event the poet remembers. It actually happened in a small town
called Maninagar, a suburb of Ahmedabad where the poet was born.
The poet watched as a young girl picked up cow-dung. In the olden days and even
today, in the villages of India, cow-dung is used as a fuel for cooking. It was also
spread on the floors of homes as it was believed to be a disinfectant and a
pesticide, apart from being an important ingredient in ritualistic worship. It was
normal for this task to be assigned to the women, of gathering dung, and then
shaping and drying it for future use. The fact that cow-dung has a religious
  
 
significance in India does not escape the attention of even the casual reader. The
image of dung as fuel or energy combined with its religious meaning as a part of
all purification rituals makes the act of collecting it even more important as the
woman is the one who brings in the energy into the home. She is also often the
purifying factor in many a home.
Perhaps, the poet felt a revulsion, or she felt compassion for the girl as maybe that
was something she wouldn’t have wanted to do. She didn’t need to, distanced from
the girl, perhaps by social class, and her urban upbringing. That maybe why the
sight is imprinted on the memory of the poet and remains with her, long years
after it occurred.

Lines 5-13:
I have thought so much about the way she 5
moved her hands and her waist
and the smell of cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies,
the smell of monkey breath and freshly washed clothes
and the dust from crows’ wings which smells different –
and again the smell of cow-dung as the girl scoops 10
it up, all these smells surrounding me separately
and simultaneously –
The poet repeats the phrase “I have thought” to let the reader know how deeply and
unforgettably she has been impacted by the sight of the girl and the task that she
performed.
The poet recalls the way the girl moved her waist and hands so gracefully. It seems
like a girl who possessed such fluid movements could have been doing an activity
that required the elegance of posture she possessed. Not collecting dung!
There is a cocktail of smells creating a distinct atmosphere that can’t possibly be
replicated elsewhere: dung, monkey’s breath, dust from crow’s feet, and freshly
washed clothes, together with the smell of wet cannas. In the midst of all of these
smells, that of the dung must be the most overpowering.
The poet appears to suggest that this mix of smells and the predominance of the
foul smell of dung is also reflective of life. There is much in life that is positive
and a lot that is negative. However, it seems like the negative always dominates
our memory in a more powerful fashion.
Canna lilies are native to India and they are hardy plants that thrive even in the
harshest of circumstances, where there is little rainfall and hard ground conditions.
They also in turn seem to reflect the qualities of the girl, tall, upright, proud, even
  
 
in the midst of a job as demeaning as picking up the dung of animals. It is strongly
reminiscent of the adage: “Bloom where you’re planted!” The girl is able to make
a proud and assertive statement of existence in the midst of her circumstances that
overpoweringly speak of difficulty and hardship.

Line 13 to the end of the poem:

– I have thought so much
but have been unwilling to use her for a metaphor,
for a nice image – but most of all unwilling
to forget her or to explain to anyone the greatness 15
and the power glistening through her cheekbones
each time she found a particularly promising
mound of dung –

In this last section of the poem, the poet shares how she finds that she is unable to
turn the girl into just another image in her poem, the impact she has had is far too
profound to reduce her to that. She feels compelled to tell it like it really was: there
was a greatness and a power that shone upon her face, each times she spotted a
mound of dung, she appeared driven to collect it, for that was her task. There was
no looking down on it; only a resignation to what needed to be done. The poem
ends with the lingering image of the girl…

Themes of the poem:

There are several themes in the poem that run parallel to one another.
1. Feminist Theme:
Firstly there is the feminist theme in the poem, focusing on the power of Woman:
i. The character of woman is the pivotal theme: woman as strong, unashamed
of her job, doing it untiringly, as it is her means of income, her
contribution to the sustenance of her family.
ii. The dung is a powerful image of the energy that a woman has, untiring
energy to fuel the upkeep of her family, often regardless of the cost to
herself.
iii. The basket is also reminiscent of her being a point of gathering of all that is
required to keep a family nurtured and whole.
iv. The strength of woman to arise and shine even in the bleakest of situations is
captured in the image of the canna lilies that prosper in difficult
circumstances.
  
 

2. The power of Memory:

The poet says she is unwilling to compromise the memory of the girl by turning
her into a metaphor as that would diminish her intrinsic value. The simple grandeur
of the girl is so striking that making her a metaphor could never do her justice.
There is almost the fear that the metaphor would overpower the beauty of the
reality and appear more intriguing than her. This the poet would not risk. She
would like to keep the memory pure and intact, just as it was, just as she
remembers. The repetition of the phrase, “I have thought so much….” Indicates the
powerful impact the sight of this girl has had on the poet. She repeats that she is
unwilling to forget the girl, perhaps this is because of what the girl’s actions
represent to the poet.
3. Dignity of labour:
The third theme of the poem is the dignity of labour.Although apparently
a demeaning task, the girl does it with seeming happiness, never
appearing to find the task odious or exhibiting any repugnance towards it.
If one were to watch the grace and pride alone with which she performed
her work, without knowing what it was that she was doing, one might
never have guessed what it was.

4. Social injustice stemming from poverty:

The poem also touches on the theme of social injustice. Perhaps the reason that the
poet was so deeply touched by watching the girl was that she was compelled by her
poverty to do a job that the poet’s own privileged societal positioning had saved
her from. That could be the reason the poet found this sight so unforgettable. The
irony that both were girls, possibly of the same age, yet one had to do something
like collect dung, while the other watched, moved, yet unable to help in any way to
redeem the girl caught in the trappings of her poor social standing.

5. Contentment:
Contentment is yet another theme of the poem. A sentiment that comes
through the poem powerfully is the emotion of contentment. The woman
seems unconscious of a more privileged world that watches her in shock
and amazement. She has little, yet seems content that at least she has that.
Each new mound of dung that she spots becomes a source of new energy
and motivation, to scoop, to collect, to gather, that she may sustain those
that depend on her for that sustenance. There is no complaining, no
  
 
grumbling about her lot in life, no comparison with those more fortunate,
just a continuous doing, of that task that must be done. This young and
contented rural girl seems to contrast sharply with the drive and urgency
of urban women who feel compelled to have more in life and are
constantly aspiring to greater things .

Conclusion:
It seems like an incredible task that Sujata Bhatt has achieved in a poem of 18
lines, but she has done it successfully. She has covered several contemporary
themes and brought the reader’s attention to them all in a way that elicits
compassion and admiration while creating awareness of parallel expressions of
womanhood that perhaps exist in our society without the hope of recognition by a
society that largely by-passes huge sections of it, in ignorance and apathy.
Muliebrity compels us to look and look again, at these themes that demand our
attention, by virtue of their existence as eternal truths that are differently
represented or manifested.