Village Song
Full are my pitchers and far to carry,Lone is the way and long,Why, O why was I tempted to tarryLured by the boatmen's song?Swiftly the shadows of night are falling,Hear, O hear, is the white crane calling,Is it the wild owl's cry?There are no tender moonbeams to light me,If in the darkness a serpent should bite me,Or if an evil spirit should smite me,Rām re Rām! I shall die.
My brother will murmur "Why doth she linger?"My mother will wait and weep,Saying, "O safe may the great gods bring her,The Jamuna's waters are deep." . . .The Jamuna's waters rush by so quickly,The shadows of evening gather so thickly,Like black birds in the sky. . . .O! if the storm breaks, what will betide me?Safe from the lightning where shall I hide me?Unless Thou succour my footsteps and guide me,Rām re Rām! I shall die.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- 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,]
- betide v. t.
- To happen to; to befall; to come to ; as, woe betide the wanderer. [OE. bitiden; pref. bi-, be- + tiden, fr. AS. tidan, to happen, fr. tid time. See Tide.]
- 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
Village 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, Village 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/village-song.html, id L27537.
Form and metre
Village Song is 22 lines in 2 stanzas of 11 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABBBCDDDC carryA · longB · tarryA · songB · fallingB · callingB · cryC · meD · meD · meD · dieC
- 2 -A-ABBCDDDC linger · weepA · her · deepA · quicklyB · thicklyB · skyC · meD · meD · meD · dieC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Full are my pitchers and far to carry, | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Lone is the way and long, | 6 | ······ |
| Why, O why was I tempted to tarry | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Lured by the boatmen's song? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Swiftly the shadows of night are falling, | 10 | /˘·/····/˘ |
| Hear, O hear, is the white crane calling, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Is it the wild owl's cry? | 6 | ······ |
| There are no tender moonbeams to light me, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| If in the darkness a serpent should bite me, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Or if an evil spirit should smite me, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Rām re Rām! I shall die. | 6 | ······ |
| My brother will murmur "Why doth she linger?" | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| My mother will wait and weep, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Saying, "O safe may the great gods bring her, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The Jamuna's waters are deep." . . . | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The Jamuna's waters rush by so quickly, | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| The shadows of evening gather so thickly, | 11 | ·/··/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Like black birds in the sky. . . . | 6 | ······ |
| O! if the storm breaks, what will betide me? | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| Safe from the lightning where shall I hide me? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Unless Thou succour my footsteps and guide me, | 11 | ···/˘·/···· |
| Rām re Rām! I shall die. | 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.