Ode to H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad
Deign, Prince, my tribute to receive,This lyric offering to your name,Who round your jewelled scepter bindThe lilies of a poet's fame;Beneath whose sway concordant dwellThe peoples whom your laws embrace,In brotherhood of diverse creeds,And harmony of diverse race:
The votaries of the Prophet's faith,Of whom you are the crown and chiefAnd they, who bear on Vedic browsTheir mystic symbols of belief;
And they, who worshipping the sun,Fled o'er the old Iranian sea;And they, who bow to Him who trodThe midnight waves of Galilee.
Sweet, sumptuous fables of BaghdadThe splendours of your court recall,The torches of a Thousand NightsBlaze through a single festival;And Saki-singers down the streets,Pour for us, in a stream divine,From goblets of your love-ghazalsThe rapture of your Sufi wine.
Prince, where your radiant cities smile,Grim hills their sombre vigils keep,Your ancient forests hoard and holdThe legends of their centuried sleep;Your birds of peace white-pinioned floatO'er ruined fort and storied plain,Your faithful stewards sleepless guardThe harvests of your gold and grain.
God give you joy, God give you graceTo shield the truth and smite the wrong,To honour Virtue, Valour, Worth.To cherish faith and foster song.So may the lustre of your daysOutshine the deeds Firdusi sung,Your name within a nation's prayer,Your music on a nation's tongue.
Words in this poem
- deign v. t.
- To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain. [OE. deinen, deignen, OF. degner, deigner, daigner, F. daigner, fr. L. dignari to deem worthy, deign, fr. dignus worthy; akin to decere to be fitting. See Decent]
- concordant a.
- Agreeing; correspondent; harmonious; consonant. [L. concordans, p. pr. of concordare: cf. F. concordant. See Concord.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- iranian a.
- Of or pertaining to Iran.
- sufi n.
- A title or surname of the king of Persia. [From the name of a dynasty of Persian kings, Safi, Safavi; said to come from name Safi-ud-din of an ancestor of the family, confused with s pious.]
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- storied a.
- Told in a story. [From Story.]
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- outshine v. i.
- To shine forth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ode to H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; 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, Ode to H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/ode-to-h-h-the-nizam-of-hyderabad.html, id L27493.
Form and metre
Ode to H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad is 40 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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-B-B receive · nameA · bind · fameA · dwell · embraceB · creeds · raceB
- 2 -A-A faith · chiefA · brows · beliefA
- 3 -A-A sun · seaA · trod · galileeA
- 4 -A-A-B-B baghdad · recallA · nights · festivalA · streets · divineB · ghazals · wineB
- 5 -A-A-B-B smile · keepA · hold · sleepA · float · plainB · guard · grainB
- 6 -A-A-B-B grace · wrongA · worth · songA · days · sungB · prayer · tongueB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Deign, Prince, my tribute to receive, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| This lyric offering to your name, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Who round your jewelled scepter bind | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The lilies of a poet's fame; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Beneath whose sway concordant dwell | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The peoples whom your laws embrace, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| In brotherhood of diverse creeds, | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| And harmony of diverse race: | 8 | ·/˘˘·˘/· |
| The votaries of the Prophet's faith, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of whom you are the crown and chief | 8 | ········ |
| And they, who bear on Vedic brows | 8 | ········ |
| Their mystic symbols of belief; | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And they, who worshipping the sun, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Fled o'er the old Iranian sea; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And they, who bow to Him who trod | 8 | ········ |
| The midnight waves of Galilee. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Sweet, sumptuous fables of Baghdad | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| The splendours of your court recall, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The torches of a Thousand Nights | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Blaze through a single festival; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And Saki-singers down the streets, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Pour for us, in a stream divine, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| From goblets of your love-ghazals | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The rapture of your Sufi wine. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Prince, where your radiant cities smile, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Grim hills their sombre vigils keep, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Your ancient forests hoard and hold | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The legends of their centuried sleep; | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘· |
| Your birds of peace white-pinioned float | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'er ruined fort and storied plain, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Your faithful stewards sleepless guard | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The harvests of your gold and grain. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| God give you joy, God give you grace | 8 | ········ |
| To shield the truth and smite the wrong, | 8 | ········ |
| To honour Virtue, Valour, Worth. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| To cherish faith and foster song. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So may the lustre of your days | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Outshine the deeds Firdusi sung, | 8 | /······· |
| Your name within a nation's prayer, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Your music on a nation's tongue. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
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.