The Saffron Picker-
The Saffron Picker explores day in the life of a woman as she picks saffron’s to provide for her family. The poet uses symbols and imagery to show the nature of her life and the mood shows what life would have been like for her and her family in the third world. Beveridge gives a sense of injustice as the woman has to constantly think about how much she needs for her family to survive. Although this is the case, Beveridge also shows acceptance of her place in the world without sympathy, more of observation that this is the way life is.
Beveridge regularly uses metaphors in her poem to suggest the lack of balance in the world. The ‘scales set by fate’ that ‘balance each day with the next’ are metaphors for the balance of the world and her misfortune whilst those better off benefit from her work. The woman shows how each day is a ‘weight’ on her as she has to ‘balance each day with the next’ counting ‘how many days divvy up the one meal’. These constant references to scales and weight explore the lack of balance and equilibrium in the world. The woman considers her children in her mathematical equations making sure she knows how much ‘yellow makes a spoonful heavy.’ These references also prove how the woman has indeed accepted her own fate. She continues in her day to day life knowing exactly how much is needed to provide and moves on as each day moves forward. The saffron represents an expensive product which ironically is being picked by a poor woman. These opposites are shown throughout the poem, heavy and light, sun and shadows, this also represents the injustice and opposites occurring in the world. The light saffron ‘crocus’ adds up to create such a ‘weight in her apron’ that is not only filled by the saffron, but by the ‘indivisible hunger that never has the levity of flowers,’ this shows that no matter how much saffron is produced each day, it will never be enough as time is continuous and each day more is needed to sufficiently provide.
