The Poems on the Theme of Spring Are Written in Different Moods:
Poems grouped together as "Songs of the Spring-time" and "The Flowering Year" are mostly inspired by spring, which has a particular appeal for the poetess. There is nothing outstanding or first-rate about them; they are at best pretty and sincere, and are all expressions of her genuine excitement over the sights, sounds and scents of the earth, especially in spring. These poems are written in different moods. She greets the season of Spring sometimes with a joyful heart; at other times it makes her pensive and sad, and a gentle melancholy colours these poems. The loved one is absent from the scene of such delights and very naturally the poet feels melancholy. The flowers in spring bring to her mind various images, and she searches for a meaning in what she sees. The poems are characteristic, even though they do not have in them much of an out- standing quality, of her general buoyancy, her sensitiveness to all forms of beauty and her great zest for life. It is significant in this context that there are among them only two or three songs that commemorate the season of summer, only one Autumn Song and none about winter.
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| Treatment of Theme of Spring in Sarojini Naidu's Poetry |
Songs of joy at the arrival of Spring:
The song named Spring, with which "Songs of the Spring-times" opens, is a good specimen of the class. It recounts the beauties of spring and states that in spring:
“Young leaves grow green on the banyan trees,
And red on the peepal tree,
The honey-birds pipe to the budding figs,
And honey-blooms call the bee.”
The loveliness of poppies, lilies and king-fishers is commemorated and the poem ends with a stanza which recalls to mind the Greek legends about the great god Pan:
“Kamala tinkles a lingering foot In the grove
In the grove where temple-bells ring,
And Krishna plays on his bamboo-flute
An idyl of love and spring.”
The season is not only greeted by her, she calls her children to share in her joy. In The Call of Spring, she tells Padmaja and Lilamani:
“Children, my children, the spring wakes anew,
And calls through the dawn and the day-time
For flower-like and fleet-maidens like you,
To share in the joys of its play time.
The earth is ashine like a humming-bird's wing,
And the sky like a King-fisher's feather,
O Come, let us go and play with the spring
Like glad-hearted children together.”
Spring is the season of lovers; they know of its coming without being told. But some of them, apparently absent-minded, need be reminded. Such a lover is encountered in In a Time of Flowers:
“O Love! do you know the spring is here
With the lure of her magic flute? . . ..
The old earth breaks into passionate bloom
At the kiss of her fleet, gay foot.”
Spring is a season which has so much beauty and joy, such a season must have an essence, a spirit, which is caught in The Joy of Spring-time:
“Spring-time, O spring-time, what is your essence.
The lilt of a bulbul, the laugh of a rose,
The dance of the dew on the wings of a moonbeam,
The voice of the zephyr that sings as he goes,
The hope of a bride or the dream of a maiden
Watching the petals of gladness unclose."
The answer to the question as to what is the secret of spring, is found in the same poem:
“Spring-time, O Spring-time, what is your secret,
The bliss at the core of your magical mirth,
That quickens the pulse of the morning to wonder
And hastens the seeds of all beauty to birth,
That captures the heavens and conquers to blossom
The roots of delight in the heart of the earth?”
Poems in Praise of Individual Flowers and Flowering Trees:
There are some of her poems, although not many, which are written in praise of individual flowers and flowering trees. Gulmohur blossoms:
“What can rival your lovely hue
Or gorgeous boon of the spring?
The glimmering red of a bridal robe,
Rich red of a wild bird's wing?
Or the mystic blaze of the gem that burns
On the brow of a serpent-king?”
Or golden cassia flowers,
“O brilliant blossoms that stew my way,
You are only woodland flowers, they say.
But I sometimes think that perchance you are
Fragments of some new-fallen star,
Or golden lamps for a fairy shrine,
Or golden pitchers for fairy wine.”
Element of Pity and Melancholy Mingled with the Spirit of Delight:
A Song in Spring, the second poem of the group of poems entitled "Song of the Spring-time", strikes a melancholy note. It turns from the wild bees and wild birds and fire-flies of spring with:
“What do you know in your blithe, brief seasons
Of dreams deferred and a heart grown old?”
The answer to the question in the above lines is given in the following lines:
“But the wild winds know; for
They have followed the hurrying feet of pilgrims.
Taking swift prayers to their utmost gods;
They have spied on Love’s old and changeless secret,
And have tarried with Death in her parleying-places,
And issued the word of high decree;
Their wings have winnowed the garnered sunlight,
Their lips have tasted the purple sea.”
The sight of champaks is pleasing, but it arouses pity in the heart of the poetess. The flowers in their glory are doomed to shrivel and fade. She contrasts them with mango and orange blossoms:
“Thy lips anew in the luscious harvests
Of ripening yellow and red;
But you when your delicate bloom is over,
Will reckon amongst the dead.”
There is a change in the mood of pity, and though they fade into nothingness, the champak flowers are in a way immortal:
“Yet, ‘tis of you thro’ the moonlit ages
That maidens and minstrels sing,
And lay your buds on the great god’s altar,
O radiant blossoms that fling
Your rich, voluptuous, magical perfume
To ravish the winds of spring.”
Birds and animals enjoy themselves in spring; they are free from worry; but it is different with men and women whose joy is marred by some fear, doubt or unfulfilled dream. Such a mood is depicted in A Song in Spring:
“Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom,
Set free awhile from the love-god's string,
Wild birds that sway in the citron branches,
Drink with the rich, red honey of spring,
Fireflies weaving aerial dances
In fragile rhythms of flickering gold?
What do you know in your blithe, brief season
Of dreams deferred and heart grown old?”
On the Vasant Panchami day, 1916, she wrote The Coming of Spring which, indeed, is a poignant song. There is no painting of the season's landscape here as in The Call of Spring; rather, the poetess expresses her inability to do so:
“O Spring! I cannot nun to greet
Your coming as I did of old,
Clad in a shining veil of gold,
With champa-buds and blowing wheat
And silver anklets on my feet."
She soon assures the season and avows that her heart has grown weary: Vasant Panchami is a season of the feast of Spring. Girls and married women are carrying lighted lamps and new-grown corns as offering to the goddess of spring. A widow sees them and indulges in mourning at her lot in the following words:
“Go, dragonfly, fold up your purple wing
Why will you bring me tidings of the spring?
O lilting koels, hush your rapturous notes,
O dhadikulas, still your passionate throats,
Or seek some further garden, for your nest……….
Your songs are poisoned arrows in my breast.”
The poem closes on a note of resignation:
“For my sad life is doomed to be, alas,
Ruined and sere like sorrow-trodden grass,
My heart hath grown, plucked by the wind of grief,
Akin to fallen flower and faded leaf,
Akin to every love and withered thing
That hath foregone the kisses of the spring.”
The spring, however, has a magic, which can remove the pain and grief of everyday life. This sentiment has been expressed in Ecstasy, where, after describing the beauty of the season, the poetess asks:
“Shall we in the midst to life's exquisite chorus
Remember our grief, O heart, when the rapturous season is o'er us
Of blossom and leaf?
Their joy from the birds and the stream let us borrow
O heart; let us sing,
The years are before us for weeping and sorrow....
To-day it is spring.”
A similar note of melancholy creeps into In a Time of Flowers but it is soon dispelled by the joy Spring brings:
“O love! do you know the spring is here
With the lure of her magic flute?
The old earth breaks into passionate bloom
At the kiss of her fleet, gay foot.,
... ... ... ...
O Love! do you know the spring is here? The dawn and the dusk grow rife
With scent and song and tremulous mirth,
The winds are drunk with the odorous breath
Of henna, sarisha, and neem."
The poem called The Magic of Spring included in "The Flowering Year," marks a characteristic contrast to The Coming of Spring which just precedes it. Here the poetess is despondent or sad because she cannot run to greet the spring as she used to do in the past. We are shown in this poem that spring triumphs over her despondency:
“I burried my heart so deep, so deep,
Under a secret hill of pain,
And said: "O broken pitiful thing,
Even the magic spring
Shall ne'er wake thee to life again,
Tho' March woods glimmer with opal rain
And passionate koels sing,"
The kimshuks burst into dazzling flower,
The seemuls burgeoned in crimson pride.
The palm-groves shone with the oriole's wing,
The koels began to sing,
The soft clouds broke in a twinkling tide.
My heart leapt up in its grave and cried,
"Is it the spring, the spring?"
Mrs. Naidu's poems seem to breathe the fragrance of spring and ring with the music of the song of various birds during this joyful season.