Suttee
Lamp of my life, the lips of DeathHath blown thee out with their sudden breath;Naught shall revive thy vanished spark . . .Love, must I dwell in the living dark?
Tree of my life, Death's cruel footHath crushed thee down to thy hidden root;Nought shall restore thy glory fled . . .Shall the blossom live when the tree is dead?
Life of my life, Death's bitter swordHath severed us like a broken word,Rent us in twain who are but one . .Shall the flesh survive when the soul is gone?
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- 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]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Suttee 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, Suttee, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/suttee.html, id L27486.
Form and metre
Suttee is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB deathA · breathA · sparkB · darkB
- 2 --AA foot · root · fledA · deadA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lamp of my life, the lips of Death | 8 | ········ |
| Hath blown thee out with their sudden breath; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Naught shall revive thy vanished spark . . . | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Love, must I dwell in the living dark? | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Tree of my life, Death's cruel foot | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hath crushed thee down to thy hidden root; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Nought shall restore thy glory fled . . . | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Shall the blossom live when the tree is dead? | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Life of my life, Death's bitter sword | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hath severed us like a broken word, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Rent us in twain who are but one . . | 8 | ········ |
| Shall the flesh survive when the soul is gone? | 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.