Tishani Doshi's "The Deliverer" addresses the horrifying reality of gender discrimination and female infanticide in India. The poem illustrates how the cultural devaluation of women's lives combined with extreme poverty can lead women to abandon babies deemed a burden by society: those with dark skin, a disability, or who are female. The speaker's mother brings one such abandoned baby girl to the United States, where she's adopted by American parents. The poem ends by returning to India to describe the horrific reality of giving birth for women like the girl's biological mother, who have little freedom over their bodies and lives. The poem suggests that a society's treatment of women and other marginalized groups directly corresponds to its treatment of its most vulnerable population: children. "The Deliverer" was published in Doshi's first poetry collection, Countries of the Body, in 2006.

• Read the full text of “The Deliverer”

• “The Deliverer” Summary

• “The Deliverer” Themes

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    Gender Discrimination and Infanticide

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-4
    • Lines 5-11
    • Lines 22-32
  • 

    Poverty, Motherhood, and Adoption

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-11
    • Lines 12-21
    • Lines 22-32

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Deliverer”

  • Lines 1-4

    OUR LADY OF ...
    ... dark or girls.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-11

    Found naked in ...
    ... mother will bring.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-15

    MILWAUKEE AIRPORT, USA ...
    ... doing things right.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-21

    They haven't seen ...
    ... her empty arms.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 22-27

    This girl grows ...
    ... Outside village boundaries

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 28-32

    Where mothers go ...
    ... their men again.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Deliverer” Symbols

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    Garbage

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 6: “Covered in garbage, stuffed in bags,”
    • Line 31: “Toss the baby to the heap of others,”

• “The Deliverer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-10: “Found naked in the streets, / Covered in garbage, stuffed in bags, / Abandoned at their doorstep. / One of them was dug up by a dog, / Thinking the head barely poking above the ground / Was bone or wood, something to chew.”
    • Lines 28-32: “Where mothers go to squeeze out life, / Watch body slither out from body, / Feel for penis or no penis, / Toss the baby to the heap of others, / Trudge home to lie down for their men again”

  • Diacope

    

    

    

    

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    Where diacope appears in the poem:

    • Lines 14-15: “about ceremony / And tradition, about doing things right.”
    • Lines 19-20: “But they are crying. / We couldn't stop crying”
    • Lines 23-24: “from woman / To woman”
    • Line 29: “Watch body slither out from body,”
    • Line 30: “Feel for penis or no penis,”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-7: “Found naked in the streets, / Covered in garbage, stuffed in bags, / Abandoned at their doorstep.”
    • Lines 9-10: “Thinking the head barely poking above the ground / Was bone or wood, something to chew.”
    • Lines 14-15: “They are American so they know about ceremony / And tradition, about doing things right.”
    • Lines 22-24: “This girl grows up on video tapes, / Sees how she's passed from woman / To woman.”
    • Lines 28-32: “Where mothers go to squeeze out life, / Watch body slither out from body, / Feel for penis or no penis, / Toss the baby to the heap of others, / Trudge home to lie down for their men again.”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “came,” “collect”
    • Line 4: “crippled”
    • Line 8: “dug,” “dog”
    • Line 17: “hair,” “hands”
    • Line 22: “girl,” “grows”
    • Line 26: “How,” “happens,” “hut”
    • Line 28: “squeeze”
    • Line 29: “slither”
    • Line 31: “Toss”
    • Line 32: “Trudge”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-10
    • Lines 12-18
    • Lines 25-32

• “The Deliverer” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Convent
  • Kerala
  • Milwaukee
  • Ceremony
  • Fetish
  • Twilight corners
  • Desolate
  • Trudge
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “OUR LADY OF THE LIGHT CONVENT”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Deliverer”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Deliverer” Speaker

• “The Deliverer” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Deliverer”

• More “The Deliverer” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Trash Bin Babies: India's Female Infanticide Crisis — Read about India's problems with female infanticide and one of many creative solutions that has recently helped save lives.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — Learn more about Doshi in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.

    • Tishani Doshi's Website — Links to books, reviews, and introductions to specific poems by Doshi herself. 

    • Indian Women Poets — Check out some examples of Indian feminist poetry.   

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