Critical Appreciation and line by line analysis of Basket full of Moonlight by Sunil Sharma

About the poet

Sunil Sharma is a poet, senior academic, critic, literary editor and author who has written more than 18 books for children. His has got 20 editions published in which Seven are collections of poetry, and two are of short fiction, one novel, a critical study of the story, and eight joint anthologies, and one joint poetry collection.

His collections of poems and stories were published in journals such as Hudson View (South Africa), The Plebian Rag and Bicycle Review (USA), Creative Saplings, Brown Critique and Kritya (India), the Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies (West Bengal), Labyrinth (Gwalior) and Poets International (Bangalore). He has also edited the English section of “the monthly bilingual journal Setu”.

About the poem

The poem is written in Dogri language by Sunil Sharma. The poem in which a child admires the beauty of the moon and requests the moon to give him it’s Moonlight. He wants the Moonlight badly as every day his father and the other villagers returns home late in the dark by the dangerous path to the village. He wants to sow the seeds of Moonlight on the sides of the road so that his father and others will be able to return safely. He wants his father to return home early before he goes to bed so that they could spend more time together.

The child’s imagination puts forward the complete poem. It shows how their mind works to solve everyday problems. It also shows how the child desires to spend more time with his father.

Structure of the poem

The poem

O moon,
give me Moonlight basketful or two baskets full,
with seeds of Moonlight.
From the city to my village,
on the sides of the path
I want to sow many,
small, small moons of light.
The whole village goes to the city
daily to work.
It becomes dark on its way back
as my village is quite far.
The route is robust and full of snakes and scorpions.
Neither bus nor cart piles.
 When my father returns home
I am asleep.
And he goes back early in the morning
while I'm sleeping.
O moon gives me a basketful of Moonlight.
On loan.
I want to light the dark route
so that my father returns early.
I too want to hear fairy tales
and stories from him.
 O moon,
give me a basketful of Moonlight
I want to sow seeds of Moonlight on the sides of the path.

The poem has got no particular rhyming scheme, and it is a free-verse rhyme scheme. The complete poem is written in a simple language which shows the simple life of the rural people and the way they lead.

Analysis Of The Poem

O moon,

give me Moonlight basketful or two baskets full,

with seeds of Moonlight.

From the city to my village,

on the sides of the path

I want to sow many,

small, small moons of light.

The whole village goes to the city

daily to work.

It becomes dark on its way back

as my village is quite far.

The route is robust and full of snakes and scorpions.

Neither bus nor cart piles.

 When my father returns home

I am asleep.

And he goes back early in the morning

while I’m sleeping.

O moon gives me a basketful of Moonlight.

On loan.

I want to light the dark route

so that my father returns early.

I too want to hear fairy tales

and stories from him.

 O moon,

give me a basketful of Moonlight

I want to sow seeds of Moonlight on the sides of the path.

The poet being a child was praying or asking for Moonlight as he needs the seeds of Moonlight to sow them on both sides of the path because every day the villagers go to the city for earning. As the distance is too much, the villagers return in the evening, it almost gets dark, and they become late to reach back home. The way back to the village is complicated and dangerous; many poisonous creatures are there in the way.  There is no vehicle to bring the villagers safely to their homes, and they have to come back walking, facing all these difficulties on the road. The poet cares for everyone, especially his father. His father is also going to the city for his work; he too comes late at night in that darkness. Always the child is asleep when his father comes back at night and can’t spend time together and that is why he wants many small moons or the Moonlight on the way to illuminate the path to his village. The poet as a child cares for his father says that he is unable to meet his father as his father who comes late due to darkness while he is sleeping and when he goes to the work the very next morning, the child is still in between his deep sleep. He wants his father to go back early in the evening to spend more time with his father, listen to the fairy tales and the stories about the world. And so he wants basketful of Moonlight from the moon on loan, and he is even ready to pay for it. He wants his father to spend more time with him.\

Literary Device

•Alliteration:–the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

• sow seeds
• snakes and scorpions

•Antithesis: –a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.

• “From the city to my village.”

•Hyperbole:– exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

• “The whole village goes to the city daily to work.”

• Repetition:- the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

• “I was to sow many small, small moons of light.”

The theme of the poem

The theme of the poem is how and why the small boy wishes to solve the problem of his village and his desires to spend time with his father. The poet shows concern for each and everyone and desires to sow seeds of Moonlight by the side of the road so that everyone could return home safely by the dark.

The poem is based on a child’s desire to spend more time with his father. It is wholly based upon a child’s imagination where he wants to help his father and other villagers to return home early and safely by lighting their path with seeds of Moonlight. He admires the beauty of the moon and requests the moon. He prays to get its Moonlight. He wants the Moonlight as every day the villagers, including his father, get late returning home. They had to walk in the dark by the dangerous path. He wants to sow the seeds of Moonlight on the side of the way so that his father can return back early, before he goes to bed.en ready to pay for the Moonlight. He says that he will also pay for the Moonlight if he gets his father’s time.