‘The Saffron Picker’ in Judith Beverages poetry anthology Wolf Notes explores the idea of injustice and inequality in a third world country from a first world point of view. This idea is conveyed through the examination of a poor saffron picking family. Feelings of sympathy towards this family only supported by a mother is conveyed through the use of imagery, metaphors and meaningful language. ‘To produce I kilogram of saffron it is necessary to pick 150,000 crocuses’.
This small yet crucial line at the very beginning of the poem suggests, that right from the start, this poem is trying to convey hardship and struggle in a life unlike the one we know; it is shown by the enormous idea of hand picking 150,000 flowers. This idea of hardship and struggle is reiterated by the first stanza, much more blunt; “soon she’ll crouch again” this phrase gives us the feeling of a monotonous life, a life filled by picking crocuses for a meagre survival. When children are introduced into this poem of insufficiency and toil a deepened sense of sadness is portrayed by the mother through the writer.
“Soon, the sun will transpose its shadows onto the faces of her children”. The cycle of poverty will continue and her children will inherit her land her job and along with those two things comes the poverty and struggle and the inability do know if you will find sustenance for the next day. The rhythm within this second stanza, is used to give a more sombre feeling by using words such as shadows and children conveying the idea that her children will also suffer the shadow that her life is.
The Homework on How important are parents in a child’s life?
Parents How important are parents in a child’s life? In my opinion, parents are extremely important in the raising of a child. Without the presence of a parent, a child will have a very difficult time growing up. There are essential things that a child has to be provided with. Those needs, I classified them into three important categories: Love Love is absolutely necessary in a good parent- ...
A sense of the knowledge of the undeniable truth of the future, about what will happen to their family; the use of consistent colons and semi colons not allowing us to stop reading and build our emotions is one of the keys to this. The end of the second and the beginning of the third stanza reiterates the unfair comparison between the amount of work and the amount of sustenance obtained from picking crocuses. The sun is one of the only ways they have of measuring time and knowing when they must do what.
“How many rounds of a lustrous table the sun must go before enough yellow makes a spoonful heavy”. The rounds that the sun must make around the lustrous table, is representing the days; the yellow is representing the the crocuses that is picked from the saffron flowers. Through this there is the possibility that the family might go days without food before they can pick enough saffron to feed themselves; reinforcing the unfairness of their laborious life. The last stanza of The Saffron Picker is conveying how empty and sad a meagre life such as this can be.
The first line is very indicative of this “and those purple fields of unfair equivalence”; the purple is referring to the colour of the saffron flowers that they must pick to survive and provide for their family. Saffron is sold for $30 a gram, communicating that the amount of work that this family does is unequitable and unbalanced with how they live. “purple fields” a phrase which conveys an image of beauty and elegance, full of life and plenty; the true and the very contrasting opposite of beauty “unfair equivalence”, shows us the true version of this life, a life devoid of plenty, and full of struggle.
Imagery and rhythm are used by Judith beverage throughout this poem. Both writing techniques are effectively used to covey a tone of sadness, to encourage empathy with the mother and her situation. Imagery is used to aid in strengthening the feelings that are being conveyed within the poem. Rhythm is used at certain times within the poem to increase what is being built up. Judith beverage has incorporated many different writing techniques to empower her writing.
