The Indian Gipsy
In tattered robes that hoard a glittering traceOf bygone colours, broidered to the knee,Behold her, daughter of a wandering race,Tameless, with the bold falcon's agile grace,And the lithe tiger's sinuous majesty.
With frugal skill her simple wants she tends,She folds her tawny heifers and her sheepOn lonely meadows when the daylight ends,Ere the quick night upon her flock descendsLike a black panther from the caves of sleep.
Time's river winds in foaming centuriesIts changing, swift, irrevocable courseTo far off and incalculable seas;She is twin-born with primal mysteries,And drinks of life at Time's forgotten source.
Words in this poem
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- tameless a.
- Incapable of being tamed; wild; untamed; untamable. Bp. Hall.
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- incalculable a.
- Not capable of being calculated; beyond calculation; very great. [Pref. in- not + calculable: cf. F. incalculable.]
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Indian Gipsy 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, The Indian Gipsy, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/the-indian-gipsy.html, id L27506.
Form and metre
The Indian Gipsy is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABAAB traceA · kneeB · raceA · graceA · majestyB
- 2 ABAAB tendsA · sheepB · endsA · descendsA · sleepB
- 3 ABAAB centuriesA · courseB · seasA · mysteriesA · sourceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In tattered robes that hoard a glittering trace | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of bygone colours, broidered to the knee, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Behold her, daughter of a wandering race, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Tameless, with the bold falcon's agile grace, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| And the lithe tiger's sinuous majesty. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| With frugal skill her simple wants she tends, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| She folds her tawny heifers and her sheep | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| On lonely meadows when the daylight ends, | 10 | ·/˘/···/·· |
| Ere the quick night upon her flock descends | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Like a black panther from the caves of sleep. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Time's river winds in foaming centuries | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Its changing, swift, irrevocable course | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘· |
| To far off and incalculable seas; | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘· |
| She is twin-born with primal mysteries, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And drinks of life at Time's forgotten source. | 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.