In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms
What can rival your lovely hueO gorgeous boon of the spring?The glimmering red of a bridal robe,Rich red of a wild bird's wing?Or the mystic blaze of the gem that burnsOn the brow of a serpent-king?
What can rival the valiant joyOf your dazzling, fugitive sheen?The limpid clouds of the lustrous dawnThat colour the ocean's mien?Or the blood that poured from a thousand breastsTo succour a Rajput queen?
What can rival the radiant prideOf your frail, victorious fire?The flame of hope or the flame of hate,Quick flame of my heart's desire?Or the rapturous light that leaps to heavenFrom a true wife's funeral pyre?
Words in this poem
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- 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.]
- rajput n.
- A Hindoo of the second, or royal and military, caste; a Kshatriya; especially, an inhabitant of the country of Rajpootana, in northern central India. [Hind. raj-put, Skr. raja-putra king's son.]
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms 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, In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/in-praise-of-gulmohur-blossoms.html, id L27532.
Form and metre
In Praise of Gulmohur Blossoms is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic 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 -A-A-A hue · springA · robe · wingA · burns · kingA
- 2 -A-A-A joy · sheenA · dawn · mienA · breasts · queenA
- 3 -A-A-A pride · fireA · hate · desireA · heaven · pyreA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What can rival your lovely hue | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| O gorgeous boon of the spring? | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The glimmering red of a bridal robe, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Rich red of a wild bird's wing? | 7 | ······· |
| Or the mystic blaze of the gem that burns | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| On the brow of a serpent-king? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What can rival the valiant joy | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Of your dazzling, fugitive sheen? | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘˘· |
| The limpid clouds of the lustrous dawn | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| That colour the ocean's mien? | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Or the blood that poured from a thousand breasts | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To succour a Rajput queen? | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| What can rival the radiant pride | 9 | ··/˘·/˘˘· |
| Of your frail, victorious fire? | 9 | ···˘/˘˘/˘ |
| The flame of hope or the flame of hate, | 9 | ········· |
| Quick flame of my heart's desire? | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Or the rapturous light that leaps to heaven | 11 | ··/˘˘····/˘ |
| From a true wife's funeral pyre? | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
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.