11 July 22 – Sarojini Naidu – Womankind #6

A WOMAN OF MYRIAD WORLDS – SAROJINI NAIDU (1879 – 1949)

Indian activist and poet Sarojini Naidu was a key figure in India’s struggle for independence from colonial rule, as well as a proponent of civil rights and women’s emancipation. Naidu made use of vivid sensory language in her poetry. She is the author of three collections: The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time, and The Feather of the Dawn (published posthumously). She even earned the nickname the “Nightingale of India” through her work. 

Here are a few some of her poems loaded with characteristic imagery.

 

My Dead Dream

HAVE YOU found me, at last, O my Dream? Seven eons ago

You died and I buried you deep under forests of snow.

Why have you come hither? Who bade you awake from your sleep

And track me beyond the cerulean foam of the deep?

Would you tear from my lintels these sacred green garlands of leaves?

Would you scare the white, nested, wild pigeons of joy from my eaves?

Would you touch and defile with dead fingers the robes of my priest?

Would you weave your dim moan with the chantings of love at my feast?

Go back to your grave, O my Dream, under forests of snow,

Where a heart-riven child hid you once, seven eons ago.

Who bade you arise from your darkness? I bid you depart!

Profane not the shrines I have raised in the clefts of my heart.

The Poet to Death

TARRY a while, O Death, I cannot die

While yet my sweet life burgeons with its spring;

Fair is my youth, and rich the echoing boughs

Where dhadikulas sing.

Tarry a while, O Death, I cannot die

With all my blossoming hopes unharvested,

My joys ungarnered, all my songs unsung,

And all my tears unshed.

Tarry a while, till I am satisfied

Of love and grief, of earth and altering sky;

Till all my human hungers are fulfilled,

O Death, I cannot die!

In the Forest

HERE, O my heart, let us burn the dear dreams that are dead,

Here in this wood let us fashion a funeral pyre

Of fallen white petals and leaves that are mellow and red,

Here let us burn them in noon's flaming torches of fire.

We are weary, my heart, we are weary, so long we have borne

The heavy loved burden of dreams that are dead, let us rest,

Let us scatter their ashes away, for a while let us mourn;

We will rest, O my heart, till the shadows are gray in the west.

But soon we must rise, O my heart, we must wander again

Into the war of the world and the strife of the throng;

Let us rise, O my heart, let us gather the dreams that remain,

We will conquer the sorrow of life with the sorrow of song.

The Snake Charmer

WHITHER dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call?

In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume,

Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel's slumber,

Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom?

I'll feed thee, O beloved, on milk and wild red honey,

I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes, green and white,

To a palace-bower where golden-vested maidens

Thread with mellow laughter the petals of delight.

Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows,

Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire?

Come, thou subtle bride of my mellifluous wooing,

Come, thou silver-breasted moonbeam of de- sire!

Background

Sarojini Naidu, known as the "Nightingale of India", was a celebrated poet, playwright, and Indian independence activist.  She was the first woman to become President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to achieve the post of Governor of Uttar Pradesh state.

She was born one of eight siblings on 13 February 1879. Her family at that time lived in Hyderabad, India. Dr. Aghomath Chattopadaya, her father was a scientist and philosopher. Varada Sunderi Devi, her mother, was a poet.  Sarojini was an extremely intelligent child, becoming fluent in five languages and wrote poems from a young age.  Her father wanted her to follow his footsteps in the world of science and mathematics but when she composed a poem which she titled "The Lady of the Lake" which was thirteen hundred lines long she impressed him with her mastery of words and so he began to encourage her.  When, a several months later she wrote a play, "Maher Muneer" he sent it to the Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad.  This resulted in her being granted a well-deserved scholarship so that she could study at King’s College in England. Here she expanded her writing to produce articles featuring themes such as the great temples and mountains of India and the complex details of Indian social life.

She returned to India when she was nineteen to be married.  Her husband was Dr. Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu from southern India.  Theirs was not a singular caste marriage which was not tolerated at that time.  However, the marriage was strong, producing four children.

She joined the Indian freedom struggle after the 1905 partition of Bengal and met noted figures such as Mahatme Ghandi and Pandit Nehru.  She travelled extensively to other parts of the world, including Europe and America, in order to speak about the Indian Nationalist cause.  In 1919 she visited England [as an advocate] the of Indian Home Rule Commission.  The following decades saw her become more political, moving around India giving speeches on subjects as varied as welfare of the young, freedom of women and, of course nationalism.  Her election as President of the Indian National Congress Party was in 1925.

Her political activities did not, however, dampen her enthusiasm for writing.  It was said that her poetry was so beautiful it could also be sung.  From 1905 to 1912 she wrote three collections of poems.  ‘The Golden Threshold’ (1905) brought her recognition as Bul Bule Hind, or Bharata Khokila, – the Nightingale of India.  She dedicated ‘The Golden Threshold to Edmund Gosse, an author who she met when studying in England who, she said “first showed me the way to the golden threshold.”  This was a collection of folk songs as well as poems.  One poem was ‘In the Forest’, a melodramatic verse the opening lines of which are:

Here, O my heart, let us burn the dear dreams that are dead,

Here in this wood let us fashion a funeral pyre

Of fallen white petals and leaves that are mellow and red,

Here let us burn them in noon's flaming torches of fire.

 For the rest of her lifetime, she kept up her participation in the fight for India’s freedom. This led to her arrest, in 1942 and imprisonment.  When India was given her independence in 1947 Sarojini was made Governor of Uttar Pradesh.

She was still working in her office when she had a heart attack and died on March 2nd 1949.

Exploration 1: Naidu uses many words and phrases that resonate with the theme of love, such as “My Dead Dream.” On the other hand, the poems also contain images of darkness and melancholy. Does this juxtaposition work in a poetic sense?

Exploration 2: In “The Poet to Death,” Naidu uses personification to create her conversation with “Death.” If you care to, find another of her poems that counters with personification to portray her conversation with life. Use https://mypoeticside.com/poets/sarojini-naidu-poems or any other source.

Exploration 3: “In the Forest” contains several counterpoint thoughts/images. What feeling and/or message do you come away with after reading the poem?

Exploration 4: Naidu combined poetic and political lives. Is this appropriate from each avocation’s point of view? In other words, should she have contained herself to one road of interest and activity? What barriers do you imagine she would have experienced in either/both these lives?