A Comparison between Sarojini and Toru:
Whereas Toru Dutt Is Interested in India's Legendary past, Sarojini Is Interested in Its Present:
Both Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu were educated in England; both had their audience in England as well as in India. Both interpreted Indian life before the western world. Both belong to the romantic tradition of poetry. But whereas Toru Dutt is interested in India's legendary past, Sarojini is interested in its present. Her poems depict the variegated charm of Indian life, the multitudinous panorama of Indian life corn-grinders, snake-charmers palanquin bearers with wandering singers, Indian weavers, etc. Often, she paints the Indian landscape and fauna and flora in her poetry.
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| Sarojini Naidu and Toru Dutt— A Comparison as Poetesses |
Toru Dutt Excels in narrative and Descriptive Art, while Sarojini Naidu Is Lyrical Poetess Per Excellence:
Toru has a rare gift of story- telling, of arousing interest and curiosity of creating suspense, and of drawing character. How vividly she describes Yama, the God of Death:
“Upon his head he wore a crown
That vestment scarlet reached low down,
His waist, a golden girdle, bright.
His skin was dark, as bronze; his face
Irradiate and yet severe;
His eyes had much of love and grace
But glowed so bright, they filled with fear.”
Sarojini Naidu was not endowed with descriptive power and the gift of character delineation but in the sphere of lyrics poetry, with all its charm, lilting melody, spontaneity and musical flow of verse she has no peer and no follower. Her genius is essentially lyrical and her poetry full of music. Who will forget the sinuous music of the lines like the following:
“Man says the world in full of fear and hate,
And all life's ripening harvest-fields await.
The restless sickles of relentless fate,
But I, sweet soul, rejoice that I was born,
When from the climbing terraces of corn
I watch the golden orioles to Thy morn.”
Both Sarojini and Toru Has Dealt with the Theme of Love in Their poetry, but Their Approach towards Love Is Different:
Toru's conception of love is ideal and spiritual after Indian hoary love tradition. Sarojini's love poems lack Toru's depth and are often sentimental or full of ornamental verbiage which we do not find in Toru Dutt's Savitri. To Sarojini Naidu physical love leads to spiritual love. Toru love is the complete identification of two ardent souls and unconditional self-surrender in its corner stone. In her love poems-Indian Love Song, Song of Radha, the Milkmaid and in the trilogy The Temple—love is expressed as an ideal thing founded on self- surrender and complete identification. However, Sarojini Naidu's conception of love is wider and of ampler sweep than that of Toru Dutt. She was keenly alive to the rapture resulting from union, the pathos and unbearable agony of separation.
In the Poems of Both Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu, Descriptions of Nature Occupy A Large Space:
In Toru Dutt's poems depicting Indian legendary themes, Nature is portrayed as background for the enactment of the human drama of the suffering of Savitri, Buttoo and Sindhu. Her descriptions of Nature are characterized by sharp power of observation and sensitiveness to colour. In the midst of the calm and tranquil natural surroundings Satyavan and Savitri enjoy Arcadian love:
“Under the faint beams of the stars
How beautiful appeared the flowers,
Light scarlet, flecked with golden bars
Of the palasas, in the bowers
That nature these herself had made
Without the aid of man. At times
Trees on their path cast densest shade,
And nightingales sang mystic rhymes
Their fears and sorrow to assuage.”
Sarojini Naidu's nature poems are written on seasons, especially spring and on flowers. Nature is not painted as background in her poems. They reveal her quick sensitiveness to colour, sounds, and scents Her nature poetry is pre-eminently sensuous and does not contain any deep thought. Her spring poems-The Call of Spring, The Coming of Spring, A Song in Spring, Vasant Panchmi; and poems on flowers like Nasturtium, Golden Cassia, Champak Blossom and The Time of Roses have a likeness in the respect that contain gorgeous and colourful spectacles in drawing which she was adept. She was a more skilled painter in words than Toru Dutt.
Then There Is a Difference in the Diction of Dutt and Naidu:
The former is one of the founders of Indo-English poetry. Toru Dutt's poetry is characterized by simplicity and lucidity of expression, and an easy and graceful style. Her diction is not ornate and gorgeous like that of Sarojini Naidu. Unlike Toru Dutt, Sarojini has two styles-one colourful and radiant and the other simple and clear. The latter kind of style is found in The Old Woman, The Queen's Rival, Village Songs, The Songs of Corn Grinders etc. Her other poems abound in apt, sensuous and impassioned epithets and colourful phraseology. About her contribution Speight writes in Indian Masters of English: "For Mrs. Naidu is above all a singer, a lyrical personality, to which she adds a very remarkable power of choosing and arranging words, almost as a jeweller inlays his gold with gems. And yet this does not imply that she uses words merely as decoration.... Her English reveals a very remarkable blend of sense and song…… Mrs. Naidu's poetry is more popular in India than that of any other Indian poet writing in metrical English."