Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Nightfall In The City Of Hyderabad
SEE how the speckled sky burns like a pigeon's throat,Jewelled with embers of opal and peridote.See the white river that flashes and..
© Sarojini Naidu
Indian Love Song
SheLIKE a serpent to the calling voice of flutes,Glides my heart into thy fingers, O my Love!Where the night-wind, like a lover, leans aboveHis..
© Sarojini Naidu
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..
© Sarojini Naidu
Damayante To Nala In The Hour Of Exile
SHALT thou be conquered of a human fateMy liege, my lover, whose imperial headHath never bent in sorrow of defeat?Shalt thou be vanquished, whose..
© Sarojini Naidu
Humayun To Zobeida (From The Urdu)
You flaunt your beauty in the rose, your glory in the dawn,Your sweetness in the nightingale, your white- ness in the swan.You haunt my waking like a..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Bangle Sellers
Bangle sellers are we who bearOur shining loads to the temple fair...Who will buy these delicate, brightRainbow-tinted circles of light?Lustrous..
© Sarojini Naidu
My Dead Dream
HAVE YOU found me, at last, O my Dream? Seven eons agoYou died and I buried you deep under forests of snow.Why have you come hither? Who bade you..
© Sarojini Naidu
In Praise Of Henna
A KOKILA called from a henna-spray:Lira! liree! Lira! liree!Hasten, maidens, hasten awayTo gather the leaves of the henna-tree.Send your pitchers..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Queen's Rival
QUEEN GULNAAR sat on her ivory bed,Around her countless treasures were spread;Her chamber walls were richly inlaidWith agate, porphory, onyx and..
© Sarojini Naidu
Corn Grinders
O little mouse, why dost thou cryWhile merry stars laugh in the sky?Alas! alas! my lord is dead!Ah, who will ease my bitter pain?He went to seek a..
© Sarojini Naidu
Suttee
LAMP of my life, the lips of DeathHath blown thee out with their sudden breath;Naught shall revive thy vanished spark . . .Love, must I dwell in the..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Indian Gipsy
In tattered robes that hoard a glittering traceOf bygone colours, broidered to the knee,Behold her, daughter of a wandering race,Tameless, with the..
© Sarojini Naidu
Street Cries
WHEN dawn's first cymbals beat upon the sky,Rousing the world to labour's various cry,To tend the flock, to bind the mellowing grain,From ardent toil..
© Sarojini Naidu
A Rajput Love Song
(Parvati at her lattice)O Love! were you a basil-wreath to twineamong my tresses,A jewelled clasp of shining gold to bind around my sleeve,O Love!..
© Sarojini Naidu
Indian Dancer
EYES ravished with rapture, celestially panting, what passionate bosoms aflaming with fireDrink deep of the hush of the hyacinth heavens that glimmer..
© Sarojini Naidu
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 beautyTo..
© Sarojini Naidu
Past And Future
The new hath come and now the old retires:And so the past becomes a mountain-cell,Where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwellIn consecrated calm..
© Sarojini Naidu
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..
© Sarojini Naidu
Leili
The serpents are asleep among the poppies,The fireflies light the soundless panther's wayTo tangled paths where shy gazelles are straying,And..
© Sarojini Naidu
Harvest Hymn
Mens Voices:LORD of the lotus, lord of the harvest,Bright and munificent lord of the morn!Thine is the bounty that prospered our sowing,Thine is the..
© Sarojini Naidu
Song Of A Dream
ONCE in the dream of a night I stoodLone in the light of a magical wood,Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;And spirits of Truth were the..
© Sarojini Naidu
In Salutation To The Eternal Peace
Men say the world is full of fear and hate,And all life's ripening harvest-fields awaitThe restless sickle of relentless fate.But I, sweet Soul..
© Sarojini Naidu
Alabaster
LIKE this alabaster box whose artIs frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart,Carven with delicate dreams and wroughtWith many a subtle and exquisite..
© Sarojini Naidu
Life
CHILDREN, ye have not lived, to you it seemsLife is a lovely stalactite of dreams,Or carnival of careless joys that leapAbout your hearts like..
© Sarojini Naidu
In The Bazaars Of Hyderabad
What do you sell O ye merchants ?Richly your wares are displayed.Turbans of crimson and silver,Tunics of purple brocade,Mirrors with panels of..
© Sarojini Naidu