An Indian Love Song
He:Lift up the veils that darken the delicate moon of thy glory and grace,Withhold not, O Love, from the night of my longing the joy of thy luminous face,Give me a spear of the scented keora guarding thy pinioned curls,Or a silken thread from the fringes that trouble the dream of thy glimmering pearls;Faint grows my soul with thy tresses' perfume and the song of thy anklets' caprice,Revive me, I pray, with the magical nectar that dwells in the flower of thy kiss.
She:How shall I yield to the voice of thy pleading, how shall I grant thy prayer,Or give thee a rose-red silken tassel, a scented leaf from my hair?Or fling in the flame of thy heart's desire the veils that cover my face.Profane the law of my father's creed for a foe of my father's race?Thy kinsmen have broken our sacred altars and slaughtered our sacred kine,The feud of old faiths and the blood of old battles sever thy people and mine.
He:What are the sins of my race, Beloved, what are my people to thee?And what are thy shrine, and kine and kindred, what are thy gods to me?Love recks not of feuds and bitter follies, of stranger, comrade or kin,Alike in his ear sound the temple bells and the cry of the muezzin.For Love shall cancel the ancient wrong and conquer the ancient rage,Redeem with his tears the memoried sorrow that sullied a bygone age.
Words in this poem
- pinioned a.
- Having wings or pinions.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- muezzin n.
- A Mohammedan crier of the hour of prayer. [Written also mouezzin, mueddin, and muwazzin.] [Ar.]
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Indian Love Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (London: William Heinemann; New York: John Lane Company, 1912), Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, An Indian Love Song, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/an-indian-love-song.html, id L27517.
Form and metre
An Indian Love Song is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic hexameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AABB-- he · graceA · faceA · curlsB · pearlsB · caprice · kiss
- 2 -AABBCC she · prayerA · hairA · faceB · raceB · kineC · mineC
- 3 AAA--BB heA · theeA · meA · kin · muezzin · rageB · ageB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He: | 1 | · |
| Lift up the veils that darken the delicate moon of thy glory and grace, | 17 | ·····/˘·/˘···/˘·· |
| Withhold not, O Love, from the night of my longing the joy of thy luminous face, | 19 | ˘/········/˘····/˘· |
| Give me a spear of the scented keora guarding thy pinioned curls, | 16 | ······/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Or a silken thread from the fringes that trouble the dream of thy glimmering pearls; | 19 | ··/˘···/˘·/˘····/˘· |
| Faint grows my soul with thy tresses' perfume and the song of thy anklets' caprice, | 19 | ······/˘˘/·····/˘˘/ |
| Revive me, I pray, with the magical nectar that dwells in the flower of thy kiss. | 19 | ˘/·····/˘/˘····/··· |
| She: | 1 | · |
| How shall I yield to the voice of thy pleading, how shall I grant thy prayer, | 17 | ·········/˘······ |
| Or give thee a rose-red silken tassel, a scented leaf from my hair? | 17 | ······/˘/˘·/˘···· |
| Or fling in the flame of thy heart's desire the veils that cover my face. | 17 | ········˘/···/˘·· |
| Profane the law of my father's creed for a foe of my father's race? | 17 | ˘/····/˘······/˘· |
| Thy kinsmen have broken our sacred altars and slaughtered our sacred kine, | 18 | ····/˘//˘/˘·/˘//˘· |
| The feud of old faiths and the blood of old battles sever thy people and mine. | 19 | ··········/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| He: | 1 | · |
| What are the sins of my race, Beloved, what are my people to thee? | 16 | ·······˘/···/˘·· |
| And what are thy shrine, and kine and kindred, what are thy gods to me? | 16 | ········/˘······ |
| Love recks not of feuds and bitter follies, of stranger, comrade or kin, | 17 | ······/˘/˘·/˘/··· |
| Alike in his ear sound the temple bells and the cry of the muezzin. | 18 | ˘/·····/˘······˘/˘ |
| For Love shall cancel the ancient wrong and conquer the ancient rage, | 16 | ···/˘·/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Redeem with his tears the memoried sorrow that sullied a bygone age. | 17 | ˘/······/˘·/˘·/·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.