The Soul’s Prayer by Sarojini Naidu (About the Poetess, The Poem & Summary)

 

The Soul’s Prayer

by Sarojini Naidu

(About the Poetess, The Poem & Summary) 

Sarojini Naidu (1879 –1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. Her mother was poetess. She inherited the instinct of poetry from her mother. She was an important figure in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Naidu's work as a poet earned her the sobriquet 'the Nightingale of India', or 'Bharat Kokila' by Mahatma Gandhi because of colour, imagery and lyrical quality of her poetry.

Born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Naidu was educated in Madras, London and Cambridge. In England, where she worked as a suffragist, she was drawn to Indian National Congress' movement for India's independence from British rule. She became a part of the Indian nationalist movement and became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj. She had a brilliant academic record. She began to write poetry from a very early age. She was the first Indian poetess who achieved considerable fame by writing the poem in English. She was appointed the President of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and later became the Governor of the United Provinces in 1947, becoming the first woman to hold the office of Governor in the Dominion of India.

Naidu's poetry includes both children's poems and others written on more serious themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy. Published in 1912, "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" remains one of her most popular poems. She was married to Govindarajulu Naidu, a general physician, and had five children with him. She died of a cardiac arrest on 2 March 1949.

The Soul’s Prayer is Sarojini’s religious and philosophical poem. In this poem she asks the God to lend her the knowledge of the inmost laws of life and death. She also compares her state of being ignorant of this secret and the state in which she is aware of God and his way of cleansing the spirit of the man.

The Soul’s Prayer

(The Poem)

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.’

In the first half of the poem, the poetess asks God to give her the knowledge of life and death and also asks Him to make her, His perfect child. In the second part of this prayer, the poetess describes, how the God chastens and cleanse a soul.

In this sweet and musical song, Sarojini describes the mood of her childhood. In childhood, she requests the Almighty to reveal her, His innermost laws of life and death. The poetess, like any other human being, wants to know the strange ways of God. The poetess is ready to face any pain or to drink any joy, which her eternal God would give her. In this way, she says, that her soul will be satisfied.

The poetess prays God, to bestow her all the grieves and joys of the world. She wants to drink all the joys and all the grieves of the world.

In the second part of this prayer, she describes, how her father, the God has answered her prayer. According to her, the God answers in a stern and low voice. He assures her that He will fulfill her desires. The god has also given her hope, that her soul shall know all the raptures of joy and despair.

The God promises to give her the experience of the depth of joy and fame and also that the love and pain of the world will clean her like a flame, so that she can have each and every desire of her. The poetess says, that after the purification of her soul, she will be able to understand the simple secrets of the God.  

In this conversation between the God and the poetess, the God answers the questions and reveals the inmost laws of life and death. He says that the life is a Prism of His light and death is the shadow of his face.

The Soul’s Prayer is divided into 7 stanzas, each of 4 lines. The rhyming in each stanza is an alternate one. Alliteration has been used in the poem. This poem is in the form of an address to God and is a religious poem.