SAROJINI NAIDU AS A POET

Sarojini Naidu is one of the greatest Indo-Anglian poets. She is appreciated as a great lyricist. Her lyrics are melodious. These lyrics have unsurpassable sweetness and beauty. Due to this Sarojini Naidu got recognition as the 'Bul Bule Hind'. Her Poems have English words, but an Indian soul. Her Poetic sensibility found its best expression in the full flush of womanhood.

The themes of Naidu's poems are usually Indian. Her poems on nature occupy the first place in her poetry. Love, life, death,religion, patriotism and women's freedom occupy prominent place in her poems. The introduction of Indian themes provides a new vitality to her poetry. Her poems are exceptionally admirable to explore the deep philosophy of spiritualism. From the thematic point of view, her poems may be divided into following categories:
1. Nature Poems
2. Love Poems
3. Patriotic Poems
4. Poems of Life and Death
5. Poems of the Indian Scene


Sarojini Naidu's contribution to the field of Indo-Anglian poetry is praiseworthy.Her well known collections of poems are as follows:
1. The Golden Threshold (1905)
2. The Bird of Time (1912)
3. The Broken Wing (1917)
4. The Feather of Dawn (1961)


Sarojini Naidu's poetic style is modeled on the lines of 'Decadent' poets.Though she follows the great English Poetic tradition, her style is essentially her own. It gives us the impression of individuality. Naidu's poetry is lyrical and musical. Here she has used many types of meter and rhyme. it is full of imagery. Naidu's lyrics are poetic cries of joy, sorrow, fervor and exultation. They are imbued with emotional intensity. The fact is that Sarojini Naidu possesses a remarkable command over the English language and prosody. Her poems exhibit a prosodic correctness and regularity.


As a poet Sarojini Naidu was influenced by some great English poets. The influence of Tennyson, Shelley and Browning can easily be seen in her compositions. Even in sorrow, her nature poems glow with a touch. The following lines of her poem 'Spring' is a beautiful example of her fantastic expression:
Young leaves grow green on the banyan twigs,
And red on the peepul tree,
The honey-birds pipe to the budding figs,
And honey-blooms call the bee...
Kamala tinkles a lingering foot
In the grove where temple-bells ring,
And Krishna plays on his bamboo flute.


Sarojini Naidu was lyricist who worked on her own inch of ivory. That's why her poems are appreciated not only on India, but all over the world. She will forever be remembered as the Nightingale of India. Maharshi Arvind, Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru were among the thousands of admirers of her work. At her death Nehru said,'And now the dearest and brightest of them has gone.I feel desolate of heart and widowed in spirit.'