“The Last Bargain” by Rabindranath Tagore is a sixteen line poem composed in blank verse conveying a strong message well needed for the materialistic world that no power, money or lust can make us happy. Simplicity and innocence are the most supreme of all.
The poem “The Last Bargain” opens with the speaker walking on the stone paved road and asking out to hire him. The first one who wants to hire him was a king. He came in his chariot and held out his hand to the speaker telling him that he wants to hire him with his power. However, the king’s power counted for nothing and he leaves the place in his chariot.
During the midday, there was an old man with a bag of gold. The speaker wandered along a twisted lane comprising of houses with shut doors. The old man tells the speaker that he would hire him with his money. He measured the gold coins which he carried in his bag but the speaker rejects all his money. The speaker turns away all the money because money will soon be spent and money cannot buy us everlasting happiness.
In the evening, the garden fences were full of flowers. A fair maid comes out and tells the speaker that she would hire him with a smiling face. But her smile faded away and she melted into tears and returns into the dark leaving the speaker alone.
Finally, the bargain is struck by a child who hires the speaker with nothing. While the sun was glowing on the sands and the sea waves lashed along the shores, a child was seen playing with shells. The child raised his head and smiled as if he already knew the speaker. The bargain of the child makes the speaker a free man. Therefore, power, money or lust could not free the speaker but power of innocence had the ability to break away his bondage. The child had the power to enslave him.
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Question 1:
Who is the speaker in the poem?
Answer:
The speaker in the poem is a man who is looking for work.
Question 2:
“The king, sword in hand” suggests
(i) wealth
(ii) power
(iii) more power than wealth
Mark the appropriate item in the context of stanza 1.
Answer:
“The king, sword in hand” suggests power.
Question 3:
The old man offered the speaker a lot of money.
Why did he turn down the offer?
Answer:
The old man offered the speaker a lot of money. However, he turned it down because he realised that money cannot give him what he actually desires. He had not till then realised that what he actually desired was happiness. When the old man was counting the gold coins, the speaker realised that once the money was finished or the work the old man wanted to hire him for was done, he would again be out of work. More than that, he would be bound in this bargain. It did not satisfy him and therefore, he turned it down.
Question 4:
Find in the poem, lines that match the following. Read both one after another.
(i) I have nothing to give you
Except goodwill and cheer.
(ii) Her happiness was no more
Than sorrow in disguise.
(iii) The king’s might was not worth much.
Answer:
(i) ‘I hire you with nothing.’
(ii) ‘Her smile paled and melted into tears’.
(iii) ‘But his power counted for naught’.
Question 5:
How did the speaker feel after talking to the child on the beach?
Answer:
The speaker felt free after talking to the child on the beach. The child was playing with shells and he ‘hired’ the speaker for nothing. This showed that he did not want any work from the speaker. In turn, he offered to give him nothing but happiness and cheer. This bargain brought him what he could not find with the king, old man, or the fair maid. This was because power, money, and beauty all go away, but happiness is something that stays and does not cost anything either. Happiness is the true asset of any human being. Power, money, and beauty cannot buy everlasting happiness.So the speaker was not bound with the child by any terms or conditions. Hence, he felt free after striking that bargain with the child.
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