Death and Life
Death stroked my hair and whispered tenderly:"Poor child, shall I redeem thee from thy pain,Renew thy joy and issue thee againInclosed in some renascent ecstasy . . .Some lilting bird or lotus-loving bee,Or the diaphanous silver of the rain,Th' alluring scent of the sirisha-plain,The wild wind's voice, the white wave's melody?"
I said, "Thy gentle pity shames mine ear,O Death, am I so purposeless a thing,Shall my soul falter or my body fearIts poignant hour of bitter suffering,Or fail ere I achieve my destined deedOf song or service for my country's need?"
Words in this poem
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- 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,]
- renascent a.
- Springing or rising again into being; being born again, or reproduced. [L. renascens, p. pr. of renasci to be born again; pref. re- re- + nasci to be born. See Nascent.]
- diaphanous a.
- Allowing light to pass through, as porcelain; translucent or transparent; pellucid; clear. [Gr. diaphane. See Phantom, and cf. Diaphane, Diaphanic.]
- purposeless a.
- Having no purpose or result; objectless. Bp. Hall.
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death and Life 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, Death and Life, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/death-and-life.html, id L27546.
Form and metre
Death and Life is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -AA--AA- tenderly · painA · againA · ecstasy · bee · rainA · plainA · melody
- 2 ABABCC earA · thingB · fearA · sufferingB · deedC · needC
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Death stroked my hair and whispered tenderly: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| "Poor child, shall I redeem thee from thy pain, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Renew thy joy and issue thee again | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| Inclosed in some renascent ecstasy . . . | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Some lilting bird or lotus-loving bee, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or the diaphanous silver of the rain, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Th' alluring scent of the sirisha-plain, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| The wild wind's voice, the white wave's melody?" | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| I said, "Thy gentle pity shames mine ear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| O Death, am I so purposeless a thing, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Shall my soul falter or my body fear | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Its poignant hour of bitter suffering, | 11 | ·/˘/˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| Or fail ere I achieve my destined deed | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Of song or service for my country's need?" | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
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.