The Soul’s Prayer by Sarojini Naidu
In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.
‘Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul would drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.
‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic knowledge of the grave.’
Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer,
And thy unconquered soul shall know
All passionate rapture and despair.
‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,
And love shall burn thee like a fire,
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,
To purge the dross from thy desire.
‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.
‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.’
INTRODUCTION -
The Soul's Prayer is an exceptionally transcendental poem by the Indian poetess, Sarojini Naidu. It reveals Naidu’s mystic vision about the problems of life and death. The poem consists of 28 lines divided into seven quatrains. Each quatrain follows the rhyme scheme of ABAB. The poem is portrayed as an imaginary conversation between the poet when she was a young child of thirteen and God. The child pleads God to reveal the meaning of life and death. The poem also presents her faith in God and her pride to be His innocent child. The poem is a popular poetic work, often considered as an example of the steady growth of Naidu's poetic sensibility and imagination.
POET -
Sarojini Naidu (13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. She was an important figure in the struggle for Indian independence. Popularly known as ‘the Nightingale of India’ or 'Bharat Kokila', Sarojini Naidu wrote poems in English on themes of patriotism, feminism, devotion, and independence. Her famous works include The Purdah Nashin, Indian Weavers, In the Bazaars of Hyderabad, etc.
SUMMARY -
In the first stanza, the poet calls herself the innocent child of God and feels pride in taking birth from His breath. She then suddenly has the extreme desire to learn about the two great mysteries of life and death. She thinks that if God reveals her the laws and mystery of life and death, she may get ready to bear the bitter experiences of life as joys and sorrows.
Next, she asks God to bless her with both pleasure and pain, as she wants to savor them both. She wants to experience both of these emotions in her life. The poetess prays to God to allow her to feel everything in the world - all life's delights and discomforts at the most intense levels. She craves bliss in life, but she is also ready to bear every pang of strife and struggle in her life.
She asks God not to hold back any of the griefs or delights. She craves the bliss of love and life which in turn enhance our life but she also wishes to know the deep secrets of the grave, life after death. She is delighted about it because she knows that the soul might not have to come back to deal with vagabond issues. The knowledge of the grave is mystic because what happens at the grave goes beyond one’s ordinary senses.
God listens to the child's prayers and replies back in a low and austere voice. He promises the poet that he will pay attention to her requests and will bless her soul with the knowledge of ecstasy and desperation, both at their peak. The poet will be disciplined about all these intricate emotions.
The poet will know the flavor of both emotions. She will be pleased and honored and would also enjoy passionate love. However, she will also bear agony and miseries which will act as the cleansing flame to remove all her urges.
God informs her that after having experienced all the love, comforts, and highs and lows of life, her soul would not be satisfied but it will crave to be released from the blind prayer. Then, drained and forgiven her soul will beg to learn about peace, instead of passion. It will want to know how to leave the fire and flame behind, the burning and cleansing, and simply experience quiet, underrated peace. It will wish to achieve salvation.
At that moment, God will show her the way by coming down from the high sky and showing her the meaning of His grace - where the sun has never shone there is also light, His light. At last, the poet finds solace in the knowledge that life and death are merely the two faces of God - His light and shadow. Thus the poem concludes with a belief that life and death are interlinked between one another, reflecting each other.
THEMES -
- Life and death - The poem discusses the two extremes of life and death. They have their laws which are administered by God and no other being can ever understand them. But, the poet wants to be a part of this life cycle. She wants to understand it and God promises to bestow his knowledge on her.
- Joy and pain - Both these emotions are viewed as two ends of a coin. They are contemporary and one experiences both in his life. The poet accepts it and even craves these emotions - the good and the bad.
END -
The poem succeeds simply to allow the reader a flash of the mystic creator and the balance of the universe. The poet understands that both “good and bad things” in life are necessary for the satisfactory completion of one soul’s agenda. At the moment certain things don’t make sense; but that doesn’t prevent her to accept life as it is: with all the bitter and the sweet.
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