81 8 8 ! “!”# $ ! % & 1 !’ % $!” 8″ ; 1 !’ ( !! ) $ ! !% #’ ; !% Poems selected.6281 88 ! “# occupies a prominent place in the history of Indo-Anglian poetry.
Her poetry is prescribed on the syllabi of national and foreign universities. Her poetry has an abiding interest for the lovers of poesy.As a poet, she has been admired as well as censured, which can be seen from the following comments:Edmond Gosse1 praised her as, “The most brilliant, the most original, as well as the most correct of all the natives of Hindustan who have written in English. “Praising her command of English George Sampson observed, “Sarojini Naidu (1879) made a more definite contribution to English poetry.
Her ardent literary temperament was fired by the poetic spirit of the Nineties and she began writing verses that are entirely English in matter and form, but was advised to turn to her native land for themes…
some of her songs are little more than exotically sentimental utterances that might have come from an English writer who knew the East by hearsay; but others give vignettes of native life and some embody the spirit of oriental devotion. In general her work is more remarkable for its command of English than for any revelation of India. “Rudra Prasad Mahto3 in his essay ‘Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu: A Study of Their Poetic Corpus’ says, “Her poetry is intensely emotional and passionate. The influence of the British Romantic poets can be perceived in her poetry, but what makes it interesting and relevant to the Indian tradition is the sustenance from the twin indigenous sources. Her poetry continues to delight the readers by its simplicity and sweetness. “H.H. Annaih Godwa4 in his ‘Encyclopaedia of Commonwealth Literature* compared both Toru Dutt and Sarojini.
He pointed out S. Naidu’s influence in the following words, “By 1905 the ‘nightingale of India’ was well launched in her own country and abroad, and before long7081 1 111 88 81 18 18 1 admirers declared “The voice of Torn Dutt is hushed. Sarojini is charming us by her sweet lyrics. “Turnbull5 comments on her feeling for English metres and English prosody. He says, “No less remarkable than her command of English poetic idiom is her feeling for English metres and English prosody. The poems display a delicate and sensitive ear, trained in the best poetic tradition. “A.N.
Jha6 praised her style, melody and theme but complained that in several pieces, “the rhetorical rather than the lyric quality predominates”.Commenting on her sense of rhyme and rhythm P. Sengupta7 says, “Her sense of rhyme and rhythm are almost too overabundant but she certainly commands a masterly control over both. “Pointing out her sensitiveness to beauty Iyengar8 expressed his views, “She was, above all, sensitive to beauty, the beauty of living things, the beauty of holiness, the beauty of the Buddha's compassion, the beauty of Brindavan’s Lord.
She didn’t specially seek out the bizarre the exotic, the exceptional, but her poems lack neither variety nor the flavour of actuality. Seldom did she venture out of her depth; she wasn’t interested in wild experimentation; she didn’t cudgel towards explosive modernity. But she had genuine poetic talent and she was a wholesome and authentic singer. "Supporting this view Tara-Ali Baig9 placed her among Romantics but she indirectly suggests that her poetry lacked modernistic trends.
She says, “…it is fortunate that her poetry was published before the birth of modern poetry.
“R. Tilak10 says, “Lotika Basu, P.Lal, Nissim Ezekiel and Paul Verghese have all criticised her lyrics for their romantic sentimentality, saccharine sweetness and tick-tock and precise rhythm. Her overopulent imagery, it is said, blurs the visionary focus, and the meaning is lost in a cloud of words.
Such critics forget that in her lyrics there is an integrationjy81 11 8 81 11 81 8 emotion. “These are numerous critical comments of this sort that throws light on the poetic talent of Sarojini Naidu. These comments are highly impressionistic and hence Jt deserves a very close stylistic examination ' of her poetry.A: Her Poetic Career:When she was only eleven she wrote her first poem. Regarding her career as a poet she says11, “One day when I was eleven I was sighing over a sum in Algebra, it wouldn 't come right; but instead a whole poem came to me suddenly. I wrote it down.
From that day my poetic career began. At thirteen I wrote a long poem. A la, ‘The Lady of the Lake ‘-1300 lines, a full fledged passionate thing that I began on the spur of the moment, without forethought, just to spite my doctor, who said I was very ill and must not touch a book".Apart from this, she wrote, certain verses between 1892 and 1896 which are unfortunately not published.
Regarding these poems, Izzat Yar Khan12 says, “These verses must have been circulated privately among the friends and they must have also been specially sent to her young man Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu, since some of them are meant to convey her love for him… They are slight in matter and substance as well as in diction and movement. “Sarojini herself did not consider these poems fit to include them in any of the three anthologies she published in her lifetime.
Nor did her daughter Padmaja regard them as suitable enough for inclusion in The Feather of the Dawn. “The present study deals only with the published poems of Sarojini Naidu.B: Her Published Poems: Four Anthologies:Sarojini Naidu is considered as one of the greatest poets in Indo- Anglian poetry because of her substantial and qualitative four anthologies. They are:6581 81 88 1 ! “# 88$%1 ; ‘( 8)8 *+ ( ,# 8- .. / 0#1 . # 2 3 # 3# / ( *+ .
, . ,# ..
( 4 ( 5 ! !1 . ( 6 . ‘.. 6 .7 /8 ‘(48 “With the docility and rapid appreciation of genius Sarojini instantly accepted and acted upon the suggestion.
And thereafter her writing tended to be typically Indian in the choice of subjects and sentiments. ” There she met Arthur Symons who guided Sarojini. Through them (Gosse and Symons), she was introduced to Rhymer’s Club founded in 1890 by W.B. Yeats and Ernest Rhys. The well known English poets of 1890s – William Watson, John Davidson, Earnest Dowson, Oscar Wilde, George Moore, Henley and others were the members of the club.
Sarojini owed much to the Rhymer’s Club. In this regard Dwivedi14 observed, “Sarojini Naidu, while in England, met the members of the Rhymer’s club who made her understand, ‘the verbal and technical accomplishment, the mastery of phrase and rhythm of English verse, without which she could not have translated her visions and experiences into melodious poems “.Remeshwar Gupta15 comments, “Gladly and voluntarily Gosse and Symons become her poetic mentors, and under their care and guidance she successfully launched out on her career as a poet. “I. The Golden Threshold:It was first published in 1905 with an introduction by Arthur Symons. It was dedicated to Edmund Gosse who first showed Sarojini Naidu the way to The Golden Threshold.1181 1 ! jtO poems in all.1) Folk Songs consist of 12 poems.
They are 1) Palanquin Bearers, 2)Wandering Singers 3) Indian Weavers 4) Coromandel Fishers 5) Snake-Charmer 6) Corn-Grinders 7) Village Song 8) In Praise of Henna 9) Harvest Hymn 10) Indian Love Song 11) Cradle Song and 12) Sutee.2) Songs for Music consist of 6 poems. They are: 1) Song of a Dream2) Humayun to Zobeida 3) Autumn Song 4) Alabaster 5) Ecstasy and 6) To My Fair Fancies.3) Poems consists of 22 poems. They are: 1) Ode to H.
H. Nizam of Hyderabad 2) Leili 3) In The Forest 4) Past and Future 5) Life 6) The Poet’s Love-Song 7) To the God of Pain 8) The Song of Princess Zeb-un-Nissa in Praise of Her Own Beauty 9) Indian Dances 10) My Dead Dream 11) Damayanti To Nala in The Hour of Exile 12) The Queen’s Rival 13) The Poet of Death 14) The Indian Gipsy 15) To My Children 16) The Pardah Nashin 17) To Youth 18) Nightfall In The City of Hyderabad 19) Street Cries 20) To India 21) The Royal Tombs of Golconda and 22) To a Buddha Seated on a Lotus.On the appearance of this volume she was greeted by her friends. It took the English speaking world by storm.
Many critical reviews of her poetry appeared in different papers and periodicals. Some of them are cited below:The Times of London16 published the following notice on the release of The Golden Threshold it says, “Her (Sarojini’s) poetry seems to sing itself as if her sweet thoughts and strong emotions sprang into lyrics of themselves. There are the same unity and spontaneity about such poems as that To A Buddha Seated On A Lotus, ‘ in which her wisdom has play… In this case the marriage of western culture with eastern has not proved barren.fh81 1 1 1 1 1 1 something unique which we need not hesitate to call poetry. ‘The Review of Reviews17 (Oct.
1905) wrote, "Not for many months has there been so rich a harvest of poetry as that garnered during the last month. In the forefront I must place S. Naidu's exquisitely musical collection of oriental lyrics and poems. “The Manchester Guardian18 says, “Its simplicity suggests Blake, it is always musical, its Eastern colour is fresh and its firm touch is quick and delicate. “T. P.
‘s Weekly19 says, “A book of verse of undeniable beauty and distinction… Her work is remarkable, opening a window through which the West may see the East if it will. ”The Morning Post20 says, “There are some small poems describing the daily life of the East which have an astonishing vividness, it is a rare art which gives the true effect of poetry in what is, after all, only the accurate statement of what the eye has seen..
. The book is not merely of accomplished but beautiful verse, it is the expression of a temperament. "The Academy21 comments, “Full of beauty…
what is as delightful as surprising in its individuality perfection of its own that owes but little to anyone… not for a very long time have we seen a volume of poetry so full of promise and achievement. ” The Indian Ladies Magazine22 points out, "..
. there is scarcely one of her poems of which the technique and rhythm and rhyme is not perfect. The thoughts are beautiful, the language is charming. “About the title of the volume A. A. Ansari23 remarks. “The very title of the book suggests the presence of undistinguished emotion conveyed in colourful and gorgeous imagery. “II The Bird of Time was published in May 1912 which was dedicated to her father and mother.
Edmund Gosse wrote an appreciable introduction to it. This volume is divided into four sections:- 1) Songs of Love and Death 2) Songs of the Springtime 3) Indian Folk-Songs 4) Songs of Life. It consists 47 poems in all.4i81 Songs of Love and Death consists of 12 poems. They are: 1) The Bird of Time 2) Dirge 3) An Indian Love Song 4) In Remembrance 5) Love and Death 6) The Dance of Love 7) A Love Song From the North 8) At Twilight 9) Alone 10) A Rajput Love Song 11) A Persian Love-Song 12) To Love.
(B) Songs of the Springtime consists of 10 poems. They are: 1) Spring 2) A Song in Spring 3) The Joy of the Springtime 4) Vasant Panchami 5) In a Time of Flowers 6) In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms 7) Nasturtiums 8) Golden Cassia 9) Champak Blossoms 10) Ecstasy.(C) Indian Folk Songs consists of 8 poems. They are: 1) Village Songs 2) Slumber Song for Sunalini 3) Songs of My City in two parts: a) In a Latticed Balcony b) In The Bazaars of Hyderabad. 4) Bangle-Sellers 5) The Festival of Serpents 6) Song of Radha, the Milkmaid 7) Spinning Song 8) Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain.(D) Songs of Life consists of 16 poems.
They are : 1) Death and Life 2) The Hussain Saagar 3) The Faery Isle of Janjira 4) The Soul’s Prayer 5) Transience 6) The Old Woman 7) In the Night 8) At Dawn 9) An Anthem of Love 10) Solitude 11) A Challenge to Fate 12) The Call to Evening Prayer 13) In Salutation to the Eternal Peace 14) Medley 15) Farewell 16) Guerdon.When this volume appeared Edward Thomas24 said, “Her poems achieve an uncommon outward gorgeousness and inward glory. ” The Yorkshire Post25 wrote, “Mrs. Naidu has not only enriched our language but has enabled us to grow into intimate relation with the spirit, the emotions, the mysticism and glamour of the East. ” Gosse observed, “The sight of much suffering, it may be, has thinned her Jasmine garlands and darkened the azure of her sky. It is known to the world that her labours for the public weal have not been carried out without deep injuries to her private health. But these things have not slackened the lyric energy ofHe81 1 8 1 he, by a noble ambition.
“Regarding its title, Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer27 thinks that it is associated with Sarojini’s developing phase when the great noble ideas of humanity began to move her directly and she started her work for the emancipation of womankind. It is derived from Omar Khayyam’s immortal lines:”The bird of Time has but a little way To Fly-and Lo! The Bird is on the wing”III The Broken Wing was published in the year 1917 and was dedicated to the Dream of Today and Hope of Tomorrow.The volume was divided into four sections:- 1) Songs of Life and Death 2) The Flowering Year 3) The Peacock Lute and 4) The Temple. It consists the highest number of poems i.e.
, 62 in all.1. The Songs of Life and Death consists of 23 poems. They are:1) The Broken Wing 2) The Gift of India 3) The Temple 4) Lakshmi, the Lotus-Bom 5) The Victor 6) The Imam Bara 7) A Song from Shiraz 8) Imperial Delhi 9) Memorial Verses in two parts: (a) Ya Mahbub, (b) Gokhale, 10) In Salutation to My Father’s Spirit 11) The Flute Player of Brindaban 12) Farewell 13) The Challenge 14) Wandering Beggars 15) The Lotus 16) The Prayer of Islam 17) Bells 18) The Garden Vigil 19) Invincible 20) The Pearl 21) Three Sorrows 22) Kali the Mother and 23) Awake.2. The Flowering Year consists of 6 poems.
They are: 1) The Call ofSpring 2) The Coming of Spring 3) The Magic of Spring 4) Summer Woods 5) June Sunset and 6) The Time of Roses.3. The Peacock Lute consists of 8 poems. They are: 1) Silver Tears2) Caprice 3) Destiny 4) Ashoka Blossom 5) Atonement 6) Longing 7) Welcome 8) The Festival of Memory.c”81 consists of three sections. They are: 1) The Gate of Delight 2) The Path of Tears 3) The Sanctuary.
Each of these sections consists of eight poems.• The Gate of Delight: Consists 8 poems. They are 1) The Offering, 2) The Feast, 3) Ecstasy, 4) The Lute Song, 5) If You Call Me, 6) The Sins of Love, 7) The Desire of Love, 8) The Vision of Love.• The Path of Tears: consists 8 poems. They are 1) The Sorrow of Love, 2) The Silence of Love, 3) The Menace of Love, 4) Love’s Guerdon, 5) If You Were Dead, 6) Supplication, 7) The Slayer, 8) The Secret.• The Sanctuary also consists 8 poems: They are 1) The Fear of Love, 2) The Illusion of Love, 3) The worship of Love, 4) Love Triumphant, 5) Love Omnipotent, 6) Love Transcendent, 7) Invocation, 8) Devotion.
Gupta R.28 comments, "Qualitatively, 'The Broken Wing’ is better than The Bird of Time’, which in several poems is more rhetorical than lyrical.”Izzal Yar Khan29 says, “There are no folk-songs in Broken Wing as there were in the Golden Threshold and The Bird of Time, but what is common between Golden Threshold and the Broken Wing is the presence of a number of songs for music. The common element between The Bird of Time and The Broken Wing, on the other hand, is the continued interest of the poet in the Indian Spring. The Broken Wing, in general shows a diminution of lyric fervour. There is maturity and depth of feeling in some poems in the section ‘Songs of Life and Death ‘ but most of the later poems especially in the section 'The Flowering Year’ and 'The Peacock’s Lute’ are little else than intellectual exercises.
“Rameshwer Gupta30 states, “Though the grace of easy lyricism is waning, the poetry is gaining in life's poignancy and seriousness. The poetxy811 8 8 181 81 8 81 8 8 previous two volumes. “Later on all the poems contained in the three volumes are collected in one volume under the title The Sceptred Flute, published by Dodd, Mead and Co.
Inc. in America and later by Kitabistan, Allahabad, 1943.IV. The Feather of the Dawn was published (after Sarojini’s death) by Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1961. The poems included in this volume are collected by Sarojini’s daughter Padmaja. The volume is divided in two sections: 1) The one consisting of Miscellaneous Poems 2) Poems of Krishna.
These poems in this volume were written in July- August 1927 under the symbolic title The Feather of The Dawn. This anthology consists of 35 poems in all.I. The Miscellaneous Poems: In this first section there are 30 poems. They are: 1) In Gokhale’s Garden 2) Lokmanya Tilak 3) Umar 4) Gujerat 5) The Night of Martyrdom 6) The Festival of the Sea having four parts: (a) Fishermen, (b) Sailors, (c) Merchants and (d) Women of Sea-faring Folk.
7) Raksha Bandhan 8) A Persian Lute Song 9) A Song of the Khyber Pass 10) Spring in Kashmir 11) The Gloriosa Lily 12) The Water Hyacinth 13) Child Fancies 14) The Bird Sanctuary 15) The Lonely Child 16) Perplext 17) Mimicry 18) On Juhu Sands 19) The Gift 20) The Amulet 21) Blind 22) Devotion 23) Unity 24) Entreaty 25) Renunciation 26) Conquest 27) Immutable.II) Poems of Krishna. There are are 5 poems in this section. They are: 1) Kanhaya 2) Ghanashyam 3) Songs of Radha having three parts 1. At Dawn 2) At Dusk 3) The Quest.On the appearance of this volume Nissim Ezekiel31 critically reviewed, “the English encouraged by Edmund Gosse granted her a season or two of favour and then dropped her irrevocably into oblivion.
”)811 A.N.Dwivedi32 asks; ‘Is it really so?’ He further justified Sarojini’s popularity and said, “The reality seems to lie on the other side. Sarojini has lived for a much longer time in the hearts of her admirers than that pointed out by Ezekiel and was very much in favour of English critics in the first quarter of the 20th century … ” I. Y.
Khan33 says, “It was hoped that the publication of this eagerly awaited book would reveal new aspects of Sarojini's work, take the poet to greater heights, and open ‘An auspicious day ‘ for Indo-Anglian poetry, but it seems that this was no more than pious hope. The book contains thirty poems, many of them on themes found in her three previous publications. “There are total 184 poems; 149 in The Sceptred Flute and 35 in the Feather of the Dawn.
They are all short poems. They are all lyrics, songs, odes and sonnets. Surprisingly enough out of 184 poems, there are only 10 sonnets. There is not a single sonnet in The Golden Threshold. In The Bird of Time there are two sonnets 1) Love and Death 2) Death in Life. In The Broken Wing there are three sonnets:1) Imperial Delhi 2) In Salutation to My Fathers Spirit 3) The Lotus.
In The Feather of the Dawn there are five sonnets 1) Lokmanya Tilak2) Umar 3) Gujerat 4) The Night of Martyrdom 5) Renunciation. The ‘Queen’s Rival’ is only a long narrative poem in these 4 anthologies.II) PHASES OF HER POETRY:Taking into consideration the chronological publication of the anthologies of her poems we have following phases of her poetry.
1. The first phase: The Golden Threshold: (1896-1904)The poems written between 1896-1904 are published in the year 1905, under the title The Golden Threshold.2. The second phase: The Bird of Time: (1905-1912)The poems written between 1905 to 1912 belong to this phase.3. The Third Phase: The Broken Wing: (1913-1917)The poems written between 1913-1917 belong to this phase.Uh81 ! “# $ ” %$& %~'Padmaja, her daughter in the year 1961.
Thus it can be seen that her poetic activity covers the period from 1896 to 1927.Ill) THEMES OF HER POETRY:In the title poem of ‘The Bird of Time’ Sarojini herself told the subject matter of her songs:Songs of the glory and gladness of life Of poignant sorrow and passionate strife,And the lilting joy of the spring Of hope that sows for the years unborn.And faith that dreams of a tarrying mom.The fragrant peace of the twilight’s breath.And the mystic silence that men call death.According to Izzat Yar Khan, Sarojini’s poems tell us of her fancies, longings, and her moments of loneliness. She writes on distinguished persons of her day, the humblest professions, religions of the world, transitoriness of life, caprice of fortune, purpose of life, social customs, history of her own land, legends of the past, Indian festivals, seasons of her land, Indian flowers etc.
There are many themes and there could not be any absolute categorization of her poems on the basis of themes or any other basis. Still, after a study of Sarojini’s poems we find that Sarojini’s poems move mostly round the three dominant themes: Love, Nature, and Scenes of Indian life. Next to them the other important theme is: ‘Questions of Life and Death.’Let us classify her poems under the themes mentioned above. One thing should be mentioned here that even though these poems are put into the category of a particular theme, they exist in their own right.fD81 in this connection says, “It (Sarojini’s poem) has its own ‘ inscape ‘ before we see it as a member of a family.Love Theme: (From The Golden Threshold)1) Indian Love-song, 2) Humayun to Zobeida 3) Ecstasy 4) In the Forest 5) The Poet’s Love Song 6) My Dead Dream 7) Damayanti to Nala in the Hour of ExileFrom The Bird of Time: 1) An Indian Love Song 2) Love and Death 3) Love Song From the North 4) Alone 5) A Rajput Love Song 6) A Persian Love Song 7) To Love 8) In a Time of Flowers 9) Ecstasy 10) Village Songs 11) Song of Radha: The Milk Maid.
From The Broken Wing: 1) The Temple, 2) The Victor 3) The Flute Player of Brindavan 4) Summer Woods 5) The Time of Roses 6) Caprice 7) Destiny 8) Asoka Blossom 9) Longing 10) Festival of Memory 11) Silver Tears 12) Welcome 13) The Temple (24 lyrics in total).From The Feather of The Dawn: 1) A Persian Lute Song 2) Perplext3) The Gift 4) The Amulet 5) Blind 6) Devotion 7) Unity 8) Entreaty 9) Renunciation 10) Conquest 11) Immutable 12) Songs of Radha: consists of 3 poems.So, as many as 68 of the total 184, almost one third, are poems on love theme.
Nature Theme:1) From The Golden Threshold1) Leili 2) In Praise of Henna 3) Nightfall in the City of Hyderabad.2) From The Bird of Time:1) Spring 2) A song in Spring 3) The Joy of the Springtime4) Vasant Panchami 5) In a Time of Flowers 6) In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms 7) Nasturtiums 8) Golden Cassia 9) Champak Blossoms.3E81 1) The Call of Spring 2) The Coming of Spring 3) Magic of Spring 4) Summer Woods 5) June Sunset 6) The Time of Roses.4) From The Feather of The Dawn:1) Spring in Kashmir 2) The Gloriosa Lily 3) The Water Hyacinth 4) The Bird Sanctuary 5) Mimicry 6) On Juhu Sands.There are total 24 poems on nature theme. From the titles of the poems mentioned above it can be pointed out that what fascinates the poet most in nature is its flowering season named ‘spring’ and ‘some flowers.
‘3. The Indian Scene Poems:1) From The Golden Threshold:1) Palanquin-Bearers, 2) Wandering Singers 3) Indian Weavers 4) Coromandel Fishers 5) The Snake Charmer 6) Corn Grinders 7) Harvest Hymn 8) Indian Dancers 9) The Indian Gipsy 10) Suttee 11) The Street Cries2) From The Bird of Time:1) The second part of the poem ‘Songs of My City’ i.e., In the Bazaars of Hyderabad 2) Bangle Sellers, 3) The Festival of Serpents 4) Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain 5) The Old Woman3) From The Broken Wing:1) Wandering Beggars 2) Kali, the Mother 3) Lakshmi The LotusBom4) From The Feather of The Dawn:1) Raksha Bandhan 2) The Festival of The Sea.
There are total 21 poems dealing with the ‘Indian Scene’.GL81 1) Life, 2) To the God of Pain 3) The Poet to Death 4) The Royal Tombs of Golconda 5) To a Buddha Seated on A Lotus.2) From The Bird of Time:1) The Bird of Time 2) Dirge 3) Love and Death 4) At Twilight 5) Death and Life 6) The Soul’s Prayer 7) Transience 8) Solitude 9) A Challenges to Fate 10) In Salutation to The Eternal Peace3) From The Broken Wing andNone.4) From The Feature of The Dawn: JThere are 15 poems dealing with this theme. The categorization of the poems under this theme will suggest that I have excluded those poems which are merely passing remarks by the poetess on the theme of life and death. The intimate involvement of the poet is considered vital in this respect.
There are poems other than mentioned above which may be called Miscellaneous Poems. There may be as many themes as there are number of poems. Practically, it is not possible to analyse all such individual poems with their individuality of themes. Very few poems deal with patriotism. The number of these poems is less. There are poems in which the poet paid tribute to her contemporary personalities. Other poems in this category exhibit the poet’s fancies e.g.
, ‘Cradle Song,’ and Slumber Song for Sunalini.These are not watertight compartments because there is much overlapping as it can be viewed that the theme of ‘nature’ intrudes/enters even in those poems whose main theme is either ‘love’, ‘problems of life and death’ or ‘Indian scene’. These themes mix.
.818 18 81 1 1 81 81 18 81 this situation the researcher has made his efforts as far as possible to select for the interpretation and analysis only those poems, dealing with the major themes without the intrusion of the one into another.The traditional critics after the perusal of her poems pointed out some of the following features of her poetry: 1) Almost all her poems are metrical composition. 2) Lyrical note is a dominant feature of her poetry.
3) Her poetry abounds in ‘metaphors’, ‘similes,’ ‘images’, ‘irony’, ‘symbolism,’ ‘personification,’ ‘oxymoron’ etc. They termed her style as ‘exuberant and jewelled.’A.N.Dwivedi observes, "There can be no two opinions about the predominance of lyrical impulse in Sarojini’s poetry. Her poems are mostly short swallow flights of fancy.
” He further pointed out, "Her poetry belongs to the Romantic school… she has not become, as Edmund Gosse36 says she hoped to, ‘a Goethe or a Keats for India.
‘… Keats and Shelley were undoubtedly her early models. ” Rameshwar Gupta37 writes, “Her poetry abounds in glowing images and symbols.
She exercised a wonderful command of the English language, rhyme and rhythm… Her poetic practice bears ample evidence to show that the Father of the Nation did no injustice in designating her as ‘Bharat Kokila ‘ or the Nightingale of India.
” He (R.Gupta) further points out, “All her poems are metrical compositions…
the diction is mostly Romantico-Victorian-Pre-Raphaletic. “The critical opinions and remarks cited above are highly impressionistic and intuitive. They are eulogistic in tone.However there are certain charges levelled against her poetry.Rameshwar Gupta38 cited the charges as follows: “She blows iridescent bubbles of sounds, luxuriates in empty verbiage.
There is no linguistic preciseness. Her verse is slushy, greasy, weak-spined, purple ~ adjectived. Her images are vague, flamboyant, merely decorative. Her poems are intellectually thin, empty of knowledge. They rather give a feeling of-P81 1 1 1 1 sentimentally affirmative and consolatory, miserably lacking historical context.
“These charges are levelled against her by the neo-modernists, whose poetry Sarojini disliked. Sarojini told about this to her friend Tara Ali Baig. In this regard by giving the reference to Tara Ali Baig, I.Y.
Khan39 in his book ‘Sarojinin Naidu: The Poet,’ says, “Sarojinin told her friend Tara Ali Baig in 1946 that modern poetry had no future and that the poetic trend would inevitably return to the discipline and beauty of the metrical form of lyrics. Such a statement did not imply that Sarojini had greater prescience about the future of poetry than others. She sincerely believed that modern permissiveness and lack ofform was a passing fad. She was like many other people of her generation who found modern art hideous simply because it was not visually beautiful. She honestly felt that modern poetry did not conform to her concept of beauty." These remarks clearly show that Sarojini Naidu’s concept of poetry and beauty was different from that of her critics (i.e., neo-modemists) who were repelled by her poetry.
Many literary critics seem to be aware of her linguistic preoccupation but they tend to focus their attention more on the thematic concerns of her poetry than on her use of language. Dr. Rameshwar Gupta wrote, ‘Sarojini: The Poetess,’ an excellent book which is in the manner of traditional criticism. He claimed that the poetess expressed her vision through language. He recognized her favourite phrases, repetitions versification, etc. He, not being stylistician, did not go beyond that. Hence it is the dire need to direct our attention to her experimentation with language in her poetry, by using linguistic-stylistics as central mode of investigation.
The relevance of this approach needs justification:Th81 !” !” 8# $ 8% & ” ” & ‘ ” ( ) * ” + $+ ,” IV. STRATEGIES AND PARAMETERS USED IN THE ANALYSES OF THE POEMS SELECTED.I. As a sample we will select some poems dealing with each majortheme belonging to each phase mentioned above, since it is notpossible to analyse all her poems with their individuality of themes.
These poems will be representative in the sense that they bear thecommon stylistic features belonging to their phases and theme.Therefore the selection of the poems would not be arbitrary. Theselected poems pertaining to different themes will be analysed asper their chronological order in the anthologies which help us todetect her development in a more natural way.Only those poems dealing with major themes are selected for analysis which exhibit the poet’s intense involvement in them.gu881 1 1 1 1888 !” ! ” 1 # 1 $ % 1 &1 ‘ ” !” !”1 % & 18( ‘ ) ) & 1) * 1) + ) , 1) – 1) . ) % & ) / 8 8181 1 811 1 8111 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 11 ! 1″ 1# # 1 1 # 1 1 1! $ “1 “1 “1 1 “1 “! $ “1 11 1 1 11 11! ” 1 1# 1 1 ” 1 ! $ ” 1 1 “1 1 !$%1 1 11 1 1 1 1 ;11 ‘1 “1 1 1 11 11! $ 1 “1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1” 1 !I.
ThemesHie Golden ThresholdThe Bird of TimeThe Broken WingThe Feather of The DawnPhase IPhase IIPhase IIIPhase IVName of the poemsName of the poemsName of the poemsName of the poemIndiansceneIndian Weavers In the Bazaars of HyderabadWanderingBeggarsRaksha BandhanNature LeilySpringJune Sunset The Bird SanctuaryLoveMy Dead DreamSongofRadha: The MilkmaidInvocationEntreatyLife and DeathTo a Buddha Seated On A LotusThe Soul’s Prayer.w881 In order to point out the operative principles of each poem and to detect the dialectics of Sarojini Naidu’s development as a poet the following charts represent the parameters which the researcher wants to apply in the study of her poems:©Phonological level^ Syllabic pattern ^ phonetic pattern nexus between the meaning of the words and motifs. Frequency of consonants and vowels, phonotactic features,protosemanticismSynchronic Study of the selected Poems.
Parameters.Syntactic levelMetricalpatternClause pattern phrases Dislocation (Inversion) Elaboration, fragmentation, regularity, parallelism, deviation, use of articles, tense, cohesion.©Diachronic Study:Phonological level^ Total number of © syllables, monosyllables, consonants, pure vowels, diphthongs, wordshaving initial/final consonant clusters, open and closed syllables, metre, and other phonotactic features.Syntactic levelType of syntax: phrasal, balanced and clausal. Dislocation, Elaboration, Fragmentation, Regularity, Parallelism, Types of sentences used, Cohesion, Use of article, and Tense,.Noticeable changes in her style.
?Lexical levelr Use of nouns. ^ verbs, adjectives, adverbs, use of simile, metaphor, images, collocational clashes, lexical cohesion, contextual meaningV_________JLexical levelTotal number o© nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, archaic words, simile, metaphors, anthropomorphism symbols and imagesFrom -?838881 11. Plosives: (Stops)7. Pure Vowels¥as in/pin/Pinli-JAs inIfr.UFeel/b/ as in/big/BigniAs in/fillFill/t/as in/tin/TinIdAs in/fellFell/d/as in/dig/Dig13:1As in/fO:JFallfklas inMklKicklulAs in/fUl/Full¥as in/get/Getlu:lAs in/fu:l/Fool2. AffricateslidAs in/kaet/Cat/tf /as in/tfln/Chin101As in/KOt/Cot/d5 /as in/d3Ad3/Judge/a/As in/KAt/Cut3. Fricatives13:1As inIk3:tlCurt/f/as in/fit/Fit /a:/As infka.
tlCart/V/.as in/Vaen/Van/d/As in/3said/Aside/e/as in/ein/Thin/8. Diphthongs/5/as in/Sen/ThenltdAs in/fell/Fail/s/as in/Sin/Sin/dU/As in/f3ul/Foal/Z/as in/zu:/ZooladAs in/fan/file///as in//Ip/Shiplav/As in/feci/Foulyas in/Ple33/Pleasure/DI/As in/FDll/FoilfhJas in/haend/Hand/ea/As in/tea/Tear4. Lateral/ua/As in/tua/tourinas inlilvlLive!5. Nasals/mlas in/maet/MatInias in/net/ Net/*/as in/Sir)/Sing6. Gliding consonants/j/as in/ja:d/Yard/w/as in/win/WinMas in/red/redGF81 !”#$ %&% -AlliterationC = ConsonantSS-AssonanceV = VowelCS-ConsonanceX = Unstressed footES-End-stopped line/ = Stressed footRO-Run-on lineRf-RefrainS-SYNTACTIC LEVELS-SubjectM.
V. = Main verbP-Predicator Aux = Auxiliary verb0-ObjectN.P.
= Noun phraseN = NounC-ComplementV.P. = Verb phraseV = VerbSubst-SubstitutionP.P.
= Prepositional phraseEllip-EllipsisAjp = Adjective phraseA-AdverbialAdvp = Adverb phraseAdv = AdverbVoc-Vocative G.P. = Genitive phraseIntj-InteijectionPm = Pronoun Conj == ConjuctionImp-Imperative verbRhq = Rhetorical questionWh-Wh-questionAdj = Adjective Neg =NegativeYes-no-questionAP-ApostropheExcl-ExclamatoryConj-ConjunctionInf-InfinitiveR-cl-Relative clauseCel-Comparative clauseA-cl-Adverbial clauseL-LEXICAL LEVELM-MetaphorS-SimileCc-Collocation clashIm-ImageABBREVIATIONSO.E.R.D.= Oxford English Reference Dictionary.B)81 1 Gosse Edmund; in Naidu Sarojini (1912), The Bird of Time, London,William Henemann, (Introduction), p.
2.2 Sampson George, (1945). The Concise Cambridge History of EnglishLiterature, p. 914.
3 Mahto Rudra Prasad in C.L. Khatri (ed.) 2003, Indian Literature in English;Critical Discourses, Jaipur, Book Enclave p.
136.4 Anniah Gowda H.H. (1998) Encyclopaedia of Commonwealth Literature(Vol.
2), New Delhi, Cosmo Publications, P. 401.5 Turnbull H.G.D.
, 1930, Introduction, Sarojini Naidu: Select poems O.U.P.Bombay, p.30.
6 Jha, A.N. in Gupta Rameshwar, (1986), Sarojini: The poetess, Delhi, 1986,Do’aba House, pll.7 Sengupta P. in Gupta Rameshwar Op.cit.
, p. 11.8 Iyengar K.R.S., (1973), Indian Writing in English, Bombay, AsiaPublishing House, p.
225.9 Baig Tara Ali, in Gupta Rameshwar, Op.cit. p.
ll.10 Tilak R., (2002), Sarojini Naidu’s Selected poems, New Delhi, RamaBrothers, p.62.11 In Gupta R.P.,Op.cit.
p.34.12 Khan Izzat Yr, 1983, Sarojini Naidu: Th ePoet, New Delhi, S. Chand and Co. Ltd.
p.255.13 Dwivedi A.N., Op.
cit., p.53.14 Dwivedi A.N., Op.cit.
p.58.15 In Gupta Rameshwar, Op.cit., p.
6.16 Dwivedi A.N., Op.cit., pp.
65, 66.17 Dwivedi A.N., Op.cit., pp.65, 66.aS81 8 8 ! 1″ #$ % #$ % #$ % & &1 #$ %’ 8″ ! 8& #$ %’ 8 ()*+ 81 81 ! ” #$ % ” 8 #, 88 #$ %’ 8&1 #$ %’ 8& ! -” . . , / + 012 34,5 $6 ‘$7+, , #, ,. + 8& 181
