Wandering Singers Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet, Through echoing forest and echoing street, With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam, All men are our kindred, the world is our home. Our lays are …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu: Village Song
Village Song HONEY, child, honey, child, whither are you going? Would you cast your jewels all to the breezes blowing? Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed you? Would you grieve the lover who is …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu: Transcience
Transcience Nay, do not grieve tho’ life be full of sadness, Dawn will not veil her spleandor for your grief, Nor spring deny their bright, appointed beauty To lotus blossom and ashoka leaf. Nay, do not pine, tho’ life …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To Youth
To Youth O YOUTH, sweet comrade Youth, wouldst thou be gone? Long have we dwelt together, thou and I; Together drunk of many an alien dawn, And plucked the fruit of many an alien sky. Ah, fickle friend, must …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To The God Of Pain
To The God Of Pain UNWILLING priestess in thy cruel fane, Long hast thou held me, pitiless god of Pain, Bound to thy worship by reluctant vows, My tired breast girt with suffering, and my brows Anointed with perpetual …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To My Fairy Fancies
To My Fairy Fancies NAY, no longer I may hold you, In my spirit’s soft caresses, Nor like lotus-leaves enfold you In the tangles of my tresses. Fairy fancies, fly away To the white cloud-wildernesses, Fly away! Nay, no …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To My Children
To My Children Jaya Surya GOLDEN sun of victory, born In my life’s unclouded morn, In my lambent sky of love, May your growing glory prove Sacred to your consecration, To my heart and to my nation. Sun of …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To India
To India O YOUNG through all thy immemorial years! Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom, And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres, Beget new glories from thine ageless womb! The nations that in fettered darkness weep Crave …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : To A Buddha Seated On A Lotus
To A Buddha Seated On A Lotus LORD BUDDHA, on thy Lotus-throne, With praying eyes and hands elate, What mystic rapture dost thou own, Immutable and ultimate? What peace, unravished of our ken, Annihilate from the world of men? …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Soul’s Prayer
The Soul’s Prayer In childhood’s pride I said to Thee: ‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath, Speak, Master, and reveal to me Thine inmost laws of life and death. ‘Give me to drink each joy and pain …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Song Of Princess Zeb-Un-Nissa In Praise Of Her Own Beauty
The Song Of Princess Zeb-Un-Nissa In Praise Of Her Own Beauty WHEN from my cheek I lift my veil, The roses turn with envy pale, And from their pierced hearts, rich with pain, Send forth their fragrance like a …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Snake Charmer
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, …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Royal Tombs Of Golconda
The Royal Tombs Of Golconda I MUSE among these silent fanes Whose spacious darkness guards your dust; Around me sleep the hoary plains That hold your ancient wars in trust. I pause, my dreaming spirit hears, Across the wind’s …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Queen’s Rival
The Queen’s Rival QUEEN GULNAAR sat on her ivory bed, Around her countless treasures were spread; Her chamber walls were richly inlaid With agate, porphory, onyx and jade; The tissues that veiled her delicate breast, Glowed with the hues …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Poet’s Love-Song
The Poet’s Love-Song In noon-tide hours, O Love, secure and strong, I need thee not; mad dreams are mine to bind The world to my desire, and hold the wind A voiceless captive to my conquering song. I need …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Poet To Death
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 …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Pardah Nashin
The Pardah Nashin HER life is a revolving dream Of languid and sequestered ease; Her girdles and her fillets gleam Like changing fires on sunset seas; Her raiment is like morning mist, Shot opal, gold and amethyst. From thieving …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Indian Gipsy
The Indian Gipsy In tattered robes that hoard a glittering trace Of bygone colours, broidered to the knee, Behold her, daughter of a wandering race, Tameless, with the bold falcon’s agile grace, And the lithe tiger’s sinuous majesty. With …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Illusion of Love
The Illusion of Love Beloved, you may be as all men say Only a transient spark Of flickering flame set in loam of clay – I care not …since you kindle all my dark With the immortal lustres of …
Read More »A Poem by Sarojini Naidu : The Coromandel Fishers
The Coromandel Fishers Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light, The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night. Come, let us gather our nets from …
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