Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE FESTIVAL OF SERPENTS, by SAROJINI NAIDU Poet's Biography First Line: Shining ones awake, we seek your chosen temples Last Line: Where life and death and sorrow and ecstasy are one. Subject(s): Folk Songs - Indian; Praise; Prayer | ||||||||
SHINING ones awake, we seek your chosen temples In caves and sheltering sandhills and sacred banyan roots; O lift your dreaming heads from their trance of ageless wisdom, And weave your mystic measures to the melody of flutes. We bring you milk and maize, wild figs and golden honey, And kindle fragrant incense to hallow all the air, With fasting lips we pray, with fervent hearts we praise you, O bless our lowly offerings and hearken to our prayer. Guard our helpless lives and guide our patient labours, And cherish our dear vision like the jewels in your crests; O spread your hooded watch for the safety of our slumbers, And soothe the troubled longings that clamour in our breasts. Swift are ye as streams and soundless as the dewfall, Subtle as the lightning and splendid as the sun; Seers are ye and symbols of the ancient silence, Where life and death and sorrow and ecstasy are one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN LISTEN, LORD: A PRAYER by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON A PRAYER FOR THE FUTURE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) DIFFERENT WAYS TO PRAY by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE PRAYER DURING A TIME MY SON IS HAVING SEIZURES by SHARON OLDS WE WHO PRAYED AND WEPT by WENDELL BERRY PRAYERS AND SAYINGS OF THE MAD FARMER by WENDELL BERRY A CHALLENGE TO FATE by SAROJINI NAIDU |
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