© 2014 JETIR November 2014, Volume 1, Issue 11 www.jetir.

org (ISSN-2349-5162)

Sarojini Naidu: A True Nightingale of India – With Particular Reference to Her

Poem “Song of Radha, the Milkmaid”…

Dr. Madhu Jindal

Associate Professor of English
M.P. College of Women
Mandi Dabwali

Abstract:

Sarojini Naidu was a woman ahead of her time. She was a woman with multiple talents.
A great poet, writer, orator, leader, fighter, activist, liberator, administrator, mother,
daughter, friend, but most importantly a true Nightingale of India. She was born in a time
when India was going through the toughest phase in her history. During that time women
were considered secondary to men. Inter Caste marriages were not allowed. Girls didn’t
use to study beyond the basic school level. But Sarojini broke all these bonds. She led
as an example and kept on proving herself right, at every given opportunity. In spite of
having a happy settled life with her family, Sarojini did not forget her duties towards her
motherland. She worked for years, continuously striving for India’s Liberalization from the
Colonial Rule. She was responsible for awakening the women of India. She brought them
out of the kitchen. She traveled from state to state, city after city and asked for the rights
of the women. She re-established self-esteem within the women of India. ‘The ancient
land’ is India, and the bird with the broken wing is Sarojini herself, determined to scale
the stars and the meet the spring in spite of a ‘week, bleeding pinion. In the modern history
of India, she has established her place in golden words, “The Nightingale of India.” In this
way; we can never forget her because of her unforgettable contributions in the field of
Indian National Freedom Movement.

Key-Words: multiple talents, Nightingale of India, awakening, re-established, self-

esteem, bleeding pinion, modern history

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Introduction:

Sarojini Naidu was a versatile genius. She was a poet, an orator, and a freedom fighter
for women’s rights, a leader, an administrator, a governor and what not. Highly educated,
she was a poet of the first order. She was a born poet whose poetic career started at a
very early age. Young Sarojini was a very bright and proud girl. Her father aspired for her
to become a mathematician or scientist, but she loved poetry from a very early age. Once
she was working on an algebra problem, and when she couldn’t find the solution she
decided to take a break, and in the same book she wrote her first poetry.

Sarojini Naidu loved India very much. She also composed several poems on Indian
themes. She also composed a very beautiful religious poem entitled “Song of Radha, The
Milkmaid”. It was included in the Indian Folk Songs Section .The theme of the poem runs
thus. The love between Radha and Krishna is immortal. Every Indian knows that Radha,
the milkmaid belonged to a small village Barsana. She goes from her native village to
Mathura, the town where her beloved Krishna lives. The two other names of Krishna are
Kanhaiya and Govida. Mathura is the chief centre of the mystic worship of Krishna, the
divine cowherd and flute- player-the “Divine Beloved” of every Hindu Heart. Radha, the
milkmaid is carrying curds to Mathura where the spring festival is going on. Cows are
lowing softly in the fields. Radha, wishing to give out her trade cry to sell her curds that is
as white as the autumn clouds, instead, calls out My Lord! My Lord! Everybody laughs.
The river Jamuna flows on softly, as if appreciating her chant. Radha reaches the bank
of the river to cross by the ferry boat. Her female companions want to wear the saffron
garments, the color of spring, and want to sing and dance and pluck the new buds.
Radha’s heart swells with the music of her Beloved Lord Krishna. She cries in ecstasy
when others humor her. The river Jamuna flows on joyfully regardless. Radha reaches,
with her gifts of curds, the temple, where the torches are brightly burning. She folds her
hands to pray to the deity, encircled by snakes, and prays for protection while the conch
shells are blown. Her heart is lost to the vision of her Beloved Lord and she calls out the
name involuntarily. Others become angry. But the river Jamuna flows on while her water
dazzles in the light of the torches.

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Objectives:

The present paper is an honest attempt to attract the attention of the readers towards the
contribution of Sarojini Naidu. The researcher further tells that Sarojini Naidu was not only
a great poetess of India but also a great freedom fighter of our nation.

A critical estimate of the poem:

The title of the poem transports us to another world, to an environment of fertility and
abundance. Mother Nature abounds the earth with the flow of her liquid. This white liquid
symbolizes affection and nurturing of life. Radha, the daughter of Mother Nature carries
the liquid of life and growth to all living beings. Mathura is her destination where Krishna,
the Divine Musician holds everybody mesmerized with his mystic presence. The heifers
herald her arrival to Mathura where she will pour into the pots the liquid which she has
brought- energy and power from the mother Earth. It is worth noticing that Sita, the other
daughter of mother Earth also represents all that stand for productivity.

Mathura is here the center of life and abundance. While the cow is the species, that
represents the flow of life and abundance. Radha feeds and nurtures life. Even the clouds
in the sky, white and creamy, are part of the resources of life. The clouds and breeze
together produce rain to awash the earth with the energy and moisture that coaxes the
dormant vitality into life energy. The time of the year should also be noted. It is the time
of incessant rain, the month of Shravan (August-September), when the life- giving
moisture bursts forth.

Radha’s heart wavers from her task in hand. She yearns for her union with Divine
Musician, a presence that encompasses every soul of Mathura. She is absorbed, heart
and mind, in his mystic presence and the trade cry she is supposed give out does not
come to her lips- only the name of Govinda, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient and the
Omnipotent, coming spontaneously from her heart, reverberates. The poet, here,
juxtaposes the two conceptions, the flowing of the river and Radha’s yearning for a
communion with Krishna.

Radha is presented in the poem in the first person. In the first stanza she refers to the
commodity she is carrying. Her mind is somewhat attached to the earthly duties and
nature of her work. Even in her surroundings she hears the cry of the heifers, an animal

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she connects with her trade. In the second stanza, her mind is drawn towards the joy and
gaiety of nature. She feels the abundance in her heart Life is flowing everywhere.

Sarojini Naidu was amongst the pioneer poets of Indo-Anglian literature. She began
writing poetry in the last decade of the nineteenth century but was highly influenced by
the Romantic poets due to her intense reading of Romantic poetry. She started writing at
the time when sonnets, ode and lyrics, having emphasis on colour, imagery, feelings and
imagination were in vogue and she was highly influenced by such writings. She studied
ornate poetry which made impact on her writings. Her close associations with Rhymer’s
club during her stay in England lent verbal classiness, musical texture and metrical
discipline to her poetry. It has been aptly commented about the striking features of her
style:

Sarojini Naidu writes instant poetry where images and metaphors come rolling ready on
the hot plates of imagination. Her poetry is intensely emotional, at times passionate to the
point of eroticism and always a spring – like lyricism. In her can be perceived the influence
of the British romantic poets, but what makes it interesting and relevant to the Indian
tradition is the sustenance from the twin indigenous sources. (Prasad and Singh 22)

The Poetry of Sarojini Naidu: An Expression of Artistry:

Illustrious writer of English verse having refined diction, whose work was admired not only
by the great Indian poets like Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo but also by the
renowned English critics like Edmond Gosse and Arthur Symons.

It has been commented: “Like Keats and Shelley, she employed a high -browed diction,
which is steeped in passion, pulse and power. Her sonorous and unusual words add to
the subtlety of expression of ideas and display a keen perception of beauty” (Dwivedi137).

While going through Naidu’s poetry one realizes that she strived to have a classy style by
using various figures of speech. One of the powerful figures of speech employed by
Sarojini Naidu was alliteration. Alliterations aliteraryor rhetorical stylistic device that allows
the repetition of the same sounds using the same consonant sound at the beginning of

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several words in close succession. The term is sometimes applied in a more general way
to the repetition of any sound, whether a vowel (assonance) or a consonant
(consonance), in any positions within the words. She employed alliteration using
assonance and consonance successfully which provided rhyme and rhythm to her lyrics.
In the poem

“The Faery Isle of Janjira” included in the fourth volume of her poetry The Sceptred Flute:
Songs of India (TSF), alliteration is being employed by consonance using the consonant
“f” in line 1 and 2 and consonant “g” in line 4 of the stanza 1. The chosen words speak of
Naidu’s refined diction: Fain would I dwell in your faery kingdom O faery queen of a
flowering clime, where life glides by to a delicate measure, with the glamour and grace of
a far-off time. (TSF Line 1-4)The repetition of a particular consonant in a line at the
beginning of significant words enhances the melody and charm of the poem. Similarly by
the repetition of vowels in her poems Naidu employed assonance competently. It
indicates Sarojini Naidu’s art of choosing words skillfully. The following lines from the last
stanza of “Indian Dancers” are also fine examples of alliteration. By using assonance and
consonance successfully she lent melody to her poem. With the help of onomatopoeic
effect and rich use of alliterative diction, she portrayed vividly the rhythm and felicity of
accomplished Kathak dancers: Now silent, now singing and swaying and swinging like
blossom that bend to the breezes or showers, Now wantonly winding, they flash, now
they falter, and, lingering, languish in radiant choir; (TSF 9-10) Metaphors and similes are
significant figures of speech through which poets express their ideas effectively. They
provide apt comparisons and help in conveying the matter impressively. Poetry is, first of
all, a communication in which a thought or message is conveyed by the writer to the
reader. It is not only an act of creation, but an act of sharing. It is therefore important for
the reader that he understands how the poet uses words, how he puts fresh vigor and
new meaning into words. The reader’s understanding is immeasurably increased if he is
familiar with the many techniques or devices of poetry. Some of these are extremely
simple; a few are rather elaborate. The simplest and also the most effective poetic device
is the use of comparison. It might almost be said that poetry expresses the thoughts of
the poet well with the help of two main means of comparing things which are, simile and
metaphor. Simile is an explicit comparison where as metaphor is an implicit comparison.
It is actually a condensed simile, for it omits “as” or “like”. A metaphor establishes a

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relationship at once and it leaves more to the imagination. It is a shortcut to the meaning
and sets two unlike things side by side to make us see the likeness between them.

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Acknowledgements

I consider it is my moral duty to pay honour, regards and thanks to the authors, librarians
and publishers of all the books, Research papers and all other sources which I have
consulted during the preparation of the present paper.

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