Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain
Men's Voices:O Thou, who rousest the voice of the thunder,And biddest the storms to awake from their sleep,Who breakest the strength of the mountains asunder,And cleavest the manifold pride of the deep!Thou, who with bountiful torrent and riverDost nourish the heart of the forest and plain,Withhold not Thy gifts O Omnipotent Giver!Hearken, O Lord of Rain!
Women's Voices:O Thou, who wieldest Thy deathless dominionO'er mutable legions of earth and the sky,Who grantest the eagle the joy of her pinion,And teachest the young of the koel to fly!Thou who art mighty to succour and cherish,Who savest from sorrow and shieldest from pain,Withhold not Thy merciful love, or we perish,Hearken, O Lord of Rain!
Words in this poem
- bountiful a.
- Free in giving; liberal in bestowing gifts and favors.
- giver n.
- One who gives; a donor; a bestower; a grantor; one who imparts or distributes.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- pinion n.
- A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
- koel n.
- Any one of several species of cuckoos of the genus Eudynamys, found in India, the East Indies, and Australia. They deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds. [Native name in India.]
- succour v. t.
- tiono run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve; as, to succor a besieged city. [OE. socouren, OF. sucurre, soucourre, secorre, F. secourir, L. succurrere, succursum, to run under, run to the aid of, help, succor; sub under + currere to run.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain 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, Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/hymn-to-indra-lord-of-rain.html, id L27545.
Form and metre
Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
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 -ABABCDCD voices · thunderA · sleepB · asunderA · deepB · riverC · plainD · giverC · rainD
- 2 -ABABCDCD voices · dominionA · skyB · pinionA · flyB · cherishC · painD · perishC · rainD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Men's Voices: | 3 | ·/˘ |
| O Thou, who rousest the voice of the thunder, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And biddest the storms to awake from their sleep, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/··· |
| Who breakest the strength of the mountains asunder, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| And cleavest the manifold pride of the deep! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Thou, who with bountiful torrent and river | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| Dost nourish the heart of the forest and plain, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Withhold not Thy gifts O Omnipotent Giver! | 11 | ˘/····˘/˘/˘ |
| Hearken, O Lord of Rain! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Women's Voices: | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| O Thou, who wieldest Thy deathless dominion | 11 | ···/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| O'er mutable legions of earth and the sky, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Who grantest the eagle the joy of her pinion, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| And teachest the young of the koel to fly! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Thou who art mighty to succour and cherish, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Who savest from sorrow and shieldest from pain, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Withhold not Thy merciful love, or we perish, | 11 | ˘/··/˘···/˘ |
| Hearken, O Lord of Rain! | 6 | /˘···· |
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.