Depicting Indian Life in Her Poems:
Sarojini Naidu's best poems are a magnificent album of Indian life. She has vividly recreated the multitudinous panorama of Indian life with all its variegated pageants. Her popularity as a poetess rests mainly on her skillful treatment of Indian themes. She sings songs Indian springs and summers. Indian love-lores, the pledges of the sons and daughters of the mother to her, Indian streets and bazars, Indian scenes and sights—these she attempts to put into words aglow with the fires of real passion and with a mostly and echo of the English Muse.
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| Nationhood or Indianness in Sarojini Naidu's poetry |
Her Secular Outlook:
Her outlook as a poet of Indian life is secular. Major Indian religions—Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, all segments of Indian society and all aspects of life—palanquin bearers, corn grinders, wandering singers, wandering beggars, Indian dancers, snake charmer, Indian seasons—spring, summer and autumn, Indian festivals and customs occupy a conspicuous place in her poetry. She has also written about Indian leaders-Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi, and about Indian cities-Delhi and Hyderabad.
Her Patriotic Fervour:
Sarojini's patriotic ardour is expressed in To India and The Gift of India. In the former she supplicates Mother India to regerate from the gloom of slavery and "beget new glories from thine ageless womb". There is intense patriotic fervour in the following lines:
"Thy Future call thee with a manifold sound
To crescent honours, splendours, victories, vast;
Waken, O slumbering Mother, and be crowned,
Who once wert empress of the sovereign past.”
Knowledge of Hindu Religion:
Sarojini Naidu was well versed with Hindu religion and its ancient lore. In her poems—Kali, The Mother, Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain, The Flute Player of Brindaban, Raksha Bandhan, Suttee, Lakshmi, The Lotus Born, Song of Radha, The Milkmaid and Vasant Panchmi. She evinces her knowledge of and insight into Hindu religion. Kali, maidens, brides, mothers, widows, artisans, peasants, victors, vanquished, scholars, priests, poets and patriots bring their humble tributes to the Supreme Mother and implore Her to shower blessings on them:
"O Terrible, and tender and divine!
O mystic mother of all sacrifice,
We deck the sombre altars of thy shrine
"With sacred basil leaves and saffron rice;
All gifts of life and death we bring to thee,
Uma haimavati!"
Her Showing Tremendous Sympathy and Catholicity of Outlook:
As a poetess of India, Naidu shows tremendous Sympathy and catholicity of outlook. Her country being a land of diverse creeds, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Parsi, she makes her readers conscious of the fraternal co-existence, of unity in diversity, of the fundamental oneness and brotherhood. For example, her poem 'Call to Prayer' is confluence of such diversities. Similarly, in a poem entitled Indian Love Song, the poetess eloquently maintains that barriers of caste and creed are swept aside when two hearts meet in love.
Indianness in Her Poems of Nature:
Even her poems of Nature are remarkable for their Indianness and are full of references to Indian flowers, birds, dawns, sunsets, and other objects of Nature. The landscape is typically Indian. She draws loving pictures of gulmohurs, golden cassias, nasturtiums, champak blossoms, wild lilies, and the bright pomegranate buds. She offers the fragment odours of henna, sarisha and neem. She gives us a chance to hear the melodies of Indian birds and the buzzing of Indian bees. On several occasions her songs are ablaze with gulmohur and cassia, with the champak and jasmine. We pass through the pomegranate gardens of mellowing down or watch sunsets which are typically Indian, the hot summer sky and the fawns feeding on scented and the bees on cactus gold. The Koels invite us to the summer woods. Spring is her favourite season, and flowers are her favourite images. The lotus is quite recurrent.
Her Poems dealing with the Vast Panorama of India:
In her poems, we come across a cross-section of the Indian society of her day from gypsies to the princes. Her depiction of India is comprehensive and realistic. She depicts with beauty, grace, love, sympathy and penetration the changing seasons, the rivers and lakes, beaches and forests, flowers and birds, men and women of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, engaged in diverse vocations and exhibiting various skill.
Historical and Mythological Legends:
It is from this inexhaustible source that the subject-matter of a number of her poems has been taken; they constitute an essential part of this pageant. Humayun to Zubeida, The Song of Princess Zebunnissa in the praise of her own Beauty, Damyanti to Nala, The Queen's Rival are poems based on popular legends. They bespeak of her mastery over the art of narration, and mark a happy departure from her over-wrought descriptions of Nature and beauty and her tapestry of fine fancies.
Pictures of Islam:
We have many poems which depict Islam and its life with an unmatched zeal. Wandering Beggars gives a pen picture of Muslim beggars with bowls in their hands, so frequently visible at the steps of Muslims monasteries singing song with the refrain of 'y' Allah, ‘Y' Allah:
“From the threshold of the dawn
On we wander always on
Till the friendly light be gone
'Y' Allah! 'Y’ Allah!”
The Old Woman presents a touching sight of an old Muslim woman who is lonely and sets out in the street and bears the bright echo of hurrying feet. The Imam Bara and A Song from Shiraz are two others of her Islamic poems.
Indian Cities in Her Poems:
Her poems on Indian cities—Nightfall in the City of Hyderabad and Imperial Delhi also reveal her boundless love for India. She spent the major portion of her life in Hyderabad and was familiar with all facts of its life. In the former poem she beautifully describes the spectacle of Hyderabad in Nightfall:
"Round the high Char Minar sounds of gay cavalcades
Blend with the music of cymbals and serenades
Over the city bridge Night comes majestical,
Borne like a queen to a sumptuous festival."
Depicting Radiant Beauty of Spring:
Sarojini Naidu has not left any aspect of Indian life untouched. The radiant beauty of spring time when the earth is apparelled in a celestial light especially lures her and she has written many a poem on spring time. A Song in Spring, The Joy in Spring Time, Vasant Panchmi, In A Time of Flowers, The Call of Spring and the Music of Spring are sensuous expressions of the beauties of spring time:
"Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom,
Set free a while from the love god’s string,
Wild bird that sway in the citron branches,
Drunk with the rich, red honey of spring.” (A Song in Spring)
Veritable Picture Gallery of Indian Life:
Sarojini's poetry is a veritable picture gallery of Indian life. She has skilfully presented the complex texture of Indian thought and life, traditions and mythology. Sir Edmund Gosse aptly wrote in his introduction to her poems, "If the poems of Sarojini Naidu be carefully and delicately studied they will be found as luminous in lighting up the dark places of the East as any contribution of savant or historian." Kalimni Kova says, "Sarojini Naidu's songs, organically connected with the Indian songs of folk-lore are at the same time a gift of ancient literary tradition. In her first poems are devoid of specific national traits, the subsequent works are replete with truly Indian, in many respects traditional figurativeness."
Thus, Naidu's contribution to the development of culture and national liberation struggle is invaluable. Her significance and greatness as a poet of India has been acknowledged by all her biographers and critics. Her poems are a class in themselves. They paint India on a wide canvas with broad, bold strokes of vivid colours. The whole wealth of India life and lore, of India's past and present, has been explored.