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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A CHALLENGE TO FATE, by SAROJINI NAIDU Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Why will you vex me with your futile conflict Last Line: My frail, serene, indomitable soul. Subject(s): Fate; Destiny | |||
WHY will you vex me with your futile conflict, Why will you strive with me, O foolish Fate? You cannot break me with your poignant envy, You cannot slay me with your subtle hate: For all the cruel folly you pursue I will not cry with suppliant hands to you. You may perchance wreck in your bitter malice The radiant empire of mine eager eyes ... Say, can you rob my memory's dear dominion O'er sunlit mountains and sidereal skies? In my enduring treasuries I hold Their ageless splendour of unravished gold. You may usurp the kingdoms of my hearing ... Say, shall my scatheless spirit cease to hear The bridal rapture of the blowing valleys, The lyric pageant of the passing year, The sounding odes and surging harmonies Of battling tempests and unconquered seas? Yea, you may smite my mouth to throbbing silence, Pluck from my lips power of articulate words ... Say, shall my heart lack its familiar language While earth has nests for her melifluous birds? Shall my impassioned heart forget to sing With the ten thousand voices of the spring? Yea, you may quell my blood with sudden anguish, Fetter my limbs with some compelling pain ... How will you daunt my free, far-journeying fancy That rides upon the pinions of the rain? How will you tether my triumphant mind, Rival and fearless comrade of the wind? Tho' you deny the hope of all my being, Betray my love, my sweetest dream destroy, Yet will I slake my individual sorrow At the deep source of universal joy ... O Fate, in vain you hanker to control My frail, serene, indomitable soul. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ATTEMPTING TO ANSWER DAVID IGNATOW'S QUESTION by ROBERT BLY FROST AND HIS ENEMIES by ROBERT BLY THE WORLDS IN THIS WORLD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR UNABLE TO FIND by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR TO HELEN KELLER - HUMANITARIAN, SOCIAL DEMOCRAT, GREAT SOUL by EDWIN MARKHAM DOMESDAY BOOK: FINDING OF THE BODY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS WE COME BACK by KENNETH REXROTH THE WAKING (2) by THEODORE ROETHKE A LOVE SONG FROM THE NORTH by SAROJINI NAIDU |
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