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").
The Snake Charmer
WHITHER dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call?In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume,Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel's..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Song Of Princess Zeb-Un-Nissa In Praise Of Her Own Beauty
WHEN from my cheek I lift my veil,The roses turn with envy pale,And from their pierced hearts, rich with pain,Send forth their fragrance like a..
© Sarojini Naidu
To The God Of Pain
UNWILLING priestess in thy cruel fane,Long hast thou held me, pitiless god of Pain,Bound to thy worship by reluctant vows,My tired breast girt with..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Coromandel Fishers
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all..
© Sarojini Naidu
To My Fairy Fancies
NAY, no longer I may hold you,In my spirit's soft caresses,Nor like lotus-leaves enfold youIn the tangles of my tresses.Fairy fancies, fly awayTo the..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Soul's Prayer
In childhood's pride I said to Thee:'O Thou, who mad'st me of Thy breath,Speak, Master, and reveal to meThine inmost laws of life and death.'Give me..
© Sarojini Naidu
To My Children
Jaya SuryaGOLDEN sun of victory, bornIn my life's unclouded morn,In my lambent sky of love,May your growing glory proveSacred to your consecration,To..
© Sarojini Naidu
To India
O YOUNG through all thy immemorial years!Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom,And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres,Beget new..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Illusion Of Love
Beloved, you may be as all men sayOnly a transient sparkOf flickering flame set in loam of clay –I care not …since you kindle all my darkWith the..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Pardah Nashin
HER life is a revolving dreamOf languid and sequestered ease;Her girdles and her fillets gleamLike changing fires on sunset seas;Her raiment is like..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Royal Tombs Of Golconda
I MUSE among these silent fanesWhose spacious darkness guards your dust;Around me sleep the hoary plainsThat hold your ancient wars in trust.I pause..
© Sarojini Naidu
To A Buddha Seated On A Lotus
LORD BUDDHA, on thy Lotus-throne,With praying eyes and hands elate,What mystic rapture dost thou own,Immutable and ultimate?What peace, unravished of..
© Sarojini Naidu
Ode To H.H. The Nizam Of Hyderabad
DEIGN, Prince, my tribute to receive,This lyric offering to your name,Who round your jewelled scepter bindThe lilies of a poet's fame;Beneath whose..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Poet To Death
TARRY a while, O Death, I cannot dieWhile yet my sweet life burgeons with its spring;Fair is my youth, and rich the echoing boughsWhere dhadikulas..
© Sarojini Naidu
The Poet's Love-Song
In noon-tide hours, O Love, secure and strong,I need thee not; mad dreams are mine to bindThe world to my desire, and hold the windA voiceless..
© Sarojini Naidu
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