Corn Grinders

Sarojini Naidu 1879 (Hyderabad) – 1949 (Lucknow)



O little mouse, why dost thou cry
While merry stars laugh in the sky?

Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah, who will ease my bitter pain?
He went to seek a millet-grain
In the rich farmer's granary shed;
They caught him in a baited snare,
And slew my lover unaware:
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.

O little deer, why dost thou moan,
Hid in thy forest-bower alone?

Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah! who will quiet my lament?

At fall of eventide he went
To drink beside the river-head;
A waiting hunter threw his dart,
And struck my lover through the heart.
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.

O little bride, why dost thou weep
With all the happy world asleep?

Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah, who will stay these hungry tears,
Or still the want of famished years,
And crown with love my marriage-bed?
My soul burns with the quenchless fire
That lit my lover's funeral pyre:
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

51 sec read
96

Quick analysis:

Scheme aa BccbddB ee Bf fbggB hh BxxbiiB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 890
Words 171
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 7, 2, 2, 5, 2, 7

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so. more…

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