Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VASANT PANCHAMI (LILAVATI'S LAMENT AT THE FEAST OF SPRING), by SAROJINI NAIDU Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Go, dragon-fly, fold up your purple wing Last Line: That hath foregone the kisses of the spring. Subject(s): Birds; Festivals; Memory; Spring; Fairs; Pageants | ||||||||
Go, dragon-fly, fold up your purple wing, Why will you bring me tidings of the spring? O lilting koels, hush your rapturous notes, O dhadikulas, still your passionate throats, Or seek some further garden for your nest ... Your songs are poisoned arrows in my breast. O quench your flame, ye crimson gulmohors, That flaunt your dazzling bloom across my doors, Furl your white bells, sweet champa buds that call. Wild bees to your ambrosial festival, And hold your breath, O dear sirisha trees ... You slay my heart with bitter memories. O joyous girls who rise at break of morn With sandal-soil your thresholds to adorn, Ye brides who streamward bear on jewelled feet Your gifts of silver lamps and new-blown wheat, I pray you dim your voices when you sing Your radiant salutations to the spring. Hai! what have I to do with nesting birds, With lotus-honey, corn and ivory curds, With plantain blossom and pomegranate fruit, Or rose-wreathed lintels and rose-scented lute, With lighted shrines and fragrant altar fires Where happy women breathe their hearts' desires? For my sad life is doomed to be, alas, Ruined and sere like sorrow-trodden grass, My heart hath grown, plucked by the wind of grief, Akin to fallen flower and faded leaf, Akin to every lone and withered thing That hath foregone the kisses of the spring. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FESTIVAL OF GIOVEDI GRASSO by MATTHEA HARVEY I DEFINE THE DARKNESS CORRECT: THE FESTIVAL OF THE FRERES LUMIERES by ELENI SIKELIANOS THE DANCE (2) by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 1. THE BALLAD-SINGER by THOMAS HARDY AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 2. FORMER BEAUTIES by THOMAS HARDY AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 3. AFTER THE CLUB-DANCE by THOMAS HARDY AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 4. THE MARKET-GIRL by THOMAS HARDY AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 5. THE INQUIRY by THOMAS HARDY AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 6. A WIFE WAITS by THOMAS HARDY A CHALLENGE TO FATE by SAROJINI NAIDU |
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