Introduction of the Poem:
In “Hunger” (from The Rain of Rites, 1976), the dramatic narrative, which unfolds in four taut stanzas, is based on the privations of a poor fisherman who drives his young daughter into prostitution. Hunger for food merges with the hunger for sex as the narrator - protagonist accepts the fisherman's offer of his daughter.
Critical Summary:
The narrator - protagonist was hard pressed for sexual gratification. The desire for having sex took hold of him; it was like a heavy load on his back. The desire was caused by the “carelessly” words of a poor and lean fisherman as he was dragging his worn - out nets on the sea beach: “Will you have her?” The fisherman spoke these words as if he were sanctifying the statement and the purpose to overcome the hunger and poverty which was writ large on his bare bones that seemed to “thrash” his eyes.
The narrator - protagonist followed the fisherman as they crossed the sands to reach the shack where the fisherman lived. The narrator - protagonist could feel the strong sex urge beating his flesh. The hope for gratification burned in his body like an itch. He followed the fisherman in complete silence. The fisherman's body was covered with froth, which he did not care to remove in view of the urgency to escort the narrator - protagonist to his shack. He continued dragging his fishing net behind him as he guided the narrator protagonist to his shack - and his daughter.
The shack was large and dingy. The fisherman opened it as one opens a wound. The narrator - protagonist walked in as the door opened and a gust of wind came in. For many days and nights the narrator - protagonist's skin had been scratched by palm leaves. As he entered the shack, smoke from the oil lamp seemed to penetrate the mind of the narrator - protagonist, as did its sticky soot. He started feeling guilty for taking advantage of somebody's poverty and hunger.
The narrator - protagonist was now inside the shack, while the fisherman remained outside. He heard the fisherman's voice telling him that his daughter had just turned fifteen and that the narrator protagonist should “feel” her. He had plenty of time as his bus left at nine. According to the narrator - protagonist, “the sky fell on me” when he reached “a father's exhausted wile”, his trick to entice him. (The fisherman must have been using all sorts of tricks to lure the customers for his fifteen - year - old daughter.)
The girl was tall but lean and thin (on account of poverty and hunger). With practised ease, she opened her legs for the stranger. The narrator - protagonist did not speak to her as he felt the “hunger” in her too. The girl's hunger was purely physical while the narrator protagonist's hunger was sexual.
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