To India
O young through all thy immemorial years!Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom,And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres,Beget new glories from thine ageless womb!
The nations that in fettered darkness weepCrave thee to lead them where great mornings break . . . .Mother, O Mother, wherefore dost thou sleep?Arise and answer for thy children's sake!
Thy Future calls thee with a manifold soundTo crescent honours, splendours, victories vast;Waken, O slumbering Mother and be crowned,Who once wert empress of the sovereign Past.
Words in this poem
- immemorial a.
- Extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition; indefinitely ancient; as, existing from time immemorial. [Pref. im- not + memorial: cf. F. immémorial.]
- regenerate v. t.
- To generate or produce anew; to reproduce; to give new life, strength, or vigor to.
- ageless a.
- Without old age limits of duration; as, fountains of ageless youth.
- womb n.
- The belly; the abdomen. [OE. wombe, wambe, AS. wamb, womb; akin to D. wam belly, OS. & OHG. wamba, G. wamme, wampe, Icel. vömb, Sw. v&mb, Dan. vom, Goth. wamba.]
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To India 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, To India, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/to-india.html, id L27512.
Form and metre
To India is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABAB yearsA · gloomB · spheresA · wombB
- 2 ABAB weepA · breakB · sleepA · sakeB
- 3 ABAB soundA · vastB · crownedA · pastB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O young through all thy immemorial years! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘···· |
| And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Beget new glories from thine ageless womb! | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| The nations that in fettered darkness weep | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Crave thee to lead them where great mornings break . . . . | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Mother, O Mother, wherefore dost thou sleep? | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Arise and answer for thy children's sake! | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy Future calls thee with a manifold sound | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| To crescent honours, splendours, victories vast; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Waken, O slumbering Mother and be crowned, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Who once wert empress of the sovereign Past. | 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.