india author m 1- a-nan - University of Wollongong

Notes Sarojini’s English influences (the Rhymers’ Club, Keats, Shelley) and praises
her lyric celebration of life’s variety. More ‘native’ than Toru Dutt, her work shows empathy
with nature, sympathy for the poor and understanding of Indian Muslims. Vivid description
accompanies subjective emotion and intimations of spirituality. Nature poetry is more
Tennysonian than Wordsworthian and love poetry echoes medieval devotional verse.
Sexuality and the modern industrial world are absent. Lists critical reactions (ornateness,
stridency, nostalgia) but is adulatory overall.
DWIVEDI, A.N. Sarojini Naidu and Her Poetry Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, 1981, xii + 164
pp.
DWIVEDI, A.N. "Sarojini Naidu's Poetic Technique" Poetry 12.1 (1987): 47-57.
GHOSE, SISIRKUMAR. "Sarojini Naidu: Towards a Revaluation." Osmania Journal of
English Studies 16, no.1 (1980): 23-36. Reprinted as "Salaam for Sarojini: Towards a
Revaluation," Perspectives on Sarojini Naidu (Ghaziabad: Vimal Prakashan, 1989): 206-217.
The kind of romantic poetry Sarojini Naidu wrote is no longer in fashion. Ghose
concentrates on her wit and humour (she referred to Mahatma Gandhi as "Mickey Mouse"),
so obvious in her speeches and letters. Ghose feels that she is not rooted in her poems, the
whole person is seldom involved, "the gulmohars, champaks, kokilas run riot in a touristy,
picture postcard dreamland." The love poems are not deeply felt. She was the first to deal
with humbler folk, like weavers and fishermen, but "it is all from the outside". She herself
confessed "I am not a poet really", which explains her devoting herself totally to the freedom
struggle, without giving up her sensitivity; she refused to follow Gandhiji in giving up good food
or clothes, and persisted in wearing silk instead of handspun khadi.
GUPTA, RAMESHWAR. "Sarojini Naidu: Her Poetic Achievement." The Rajasthan Journal
of English Studies 1, no.1 (1974): 1-5.
Critically evaluates her overall poetic achievement. Sarojini Naidu wrote 184 short
poems, no epic, dramatic or narrative poetry. She is essentially a lyricist, without much
growth. Her work is characterized by delicate fancy and haunting melody. There is no
intellectual content in her poetry. Her canvas is limited, many of her poems are on romantic
love. Nature poems deal mainly with Basant (spring). Her achievment lies in finding metrical
rhythms for Indian folk tunes; she succeeded in recreating the colour and pageantry, the
sensuous aspect, of Indian life, rather than the mystical or the spiritual.
GUPTA, RAMESHWAR. "Sarojini Naidu: The Flouter of the Metaphysical Tradition."
Osmania Journal of English Studies 16, no.1 (1980):37-49.
Sarojini's creative years spanned the Hulme-Pound-Eliot period, and she would have
known about the new trends in poetry. Gupta feels that she rejected it, just as she rejected
Gandhian austere living. She remained steeped in Elizabethan romanticism, taking joy in colour
and beauty. Gupta defends Sarojini's poetry against the strictures laid on it by modern poets in
P. Lal and Raghavendra Rao's Modern Indo-Anglian Poetry (1959). He admits the charge of
verbosity, but points out that there are many poems (such as the folk songs) in which every
word is inevitable, and cannot be removed or changed without loss. She is said to ignore
reality; Gupta observes that the pleasant aspects of life she writes about, spring and youth and
love, are also part of life. As for being ephemeral, she herself was aware that her poetry was
ephemeral. She was free and spontaneous and mellifluous like a bird in her lyrics. Modern
poets cannot equal the melody of her diction.