Critical Appreciation of ‘Raksha Bandhan’ – P. Seshadri

Introduction

P. Seshadri’s Raksha Bandhan is a beautiful sonnet on devotion, love and care of a woman. Rakshabandhan is just an example of that and she excels in every relationship in terms of care, love and devotion.

Central Idea

The poem is centralised on the festival Raksha Bandhan which is significant for both brothers and sisters. But the real focus of the poetess is on significance of woman in human relationships. The poetess claims that none in the world can have more devotion, love and care than a woman or sister.

Themes

1. An age old festival of Rakshabandhan – The poem explains that this sacred day of Raksha Bandhan comes in the month of Sravan when monsoon rains are common. On this festival a sacred thread is tied on the wrist of a brother by her sister. It is an ancient festival which is still religiously celebrated by brothers and sisters. Brothers ensure their presence in front of their sisters on this day. The poetess claims that no one in this world would consider this festival a useless ancient ritual and shows respect towards it.
2. Devotion, care and love of woman – In the background of festival Raksha Bandhan poetess focuses on devotion care and love of a woman. She rhetorically claims that no one in this world would flout the norms of this festival as there is none can beat a woman in terms of devotion and love and a sister in terms of care through her pure wishes.

Literary Devices

1. Alliteration – There is repetition of consonant sounds /t/ and /f/ at the starting of words ‘tassel tipped’ and ‘flout this festival’. Hence it’s an example of alliteration.
2. Personification – There is personification in phrase ‘lands are bathed’ as lands are treated like a person taking bath.
3. Rhetorical question – These lines are classic example of Rhetorical Question – Who will be rashly bold / And flout this festival as void of worth —An ancient mummery — to which man shows / His slavish piety? Here poetess is not asking about the person who would consider this festival worthless but she is claiming that no one in this world consider this festival and ancient useless ritual.
4. Anaphora – There is repetition of ‘Of’ at the starting of Twelve and thirteenth lines of the poem continuously. Hence such repetition at the starting of lines is called Anaphora.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. It is divided into octave and sestet. The rhyme scheme of octave is abbaabba but sestet has slightly different rhyme scheme as it rhymes cddeec.

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