Page:Classical Poets Of Gujarat.pdf/69

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67

it ig beeause she has not what she wants, Give her the -one man that she wants, andshe wants noneelse. This is the burden and keystone of many a poem of Samal’s.

The poet has an infinite number of other things” to say to his countrymen. Woman may not only bee spinster, but she may be neither a married woman nor a spinster, that is, a concubine. Concubines figure in his poems, but not in their degraded way. He can -conceive a better form of life for them, and in that form they are much similar to the learned and accomplished concubines of Athens,with whom men like Pericles. and even philosophers associated. His concubine is not quite excluded from the thres- shold of the family. matron. Her valuable assis- tance, her knowledge of human nature, her skill and cunning, her arts and devices, her invention and judg- ment,—these are utilized by kings and subjects, by men and women, for saving the innocent victims of rogues and swindlers. She—the concubine—assists young ladies in saving their chosen lords from the vengeance -of their fathers. She educates young men in the refined arts of life. She can solve many a riddle of life. And she is no mean creature. She has drawn her wisdom and arts‘from her most varied experience. And though she does hot marry according to our artificial ways she selects and loves her ideal man .as any other woman does, and she sticks to him for his virtues: