BA I Semester Optional English.
NEW NEP Syllabus 2024
COROMANDEL FISHERS
by Sarojini Naidu
About the poetess
Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)
Sarojini Chattopadhyay was born at Hyderabad on February 13, 1879 the eldest of a large family, all of whom were taught English at an early age. At the age of twelve she passed the Matriculation of the Madras University, She was a great poetess, patriot, politician, orator and administrator.
Her collection of poems was published in 1905 under the title “Golden Threshold”. After that, she published two other collections of poems—“The Bird of Time” and “The Broken Wings”. In 1918, “Feast of Youth” was published. Later, “The Magic Tree”, “The Wizard Mask” and “A Treasury of Poems” were published. Mahashree Arvind, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru were among the thousands of admirers of her work.
POEM TEXT
COROMANDEL FISHERS
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night.
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!
No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull’s call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.
Sweet is the shade of the cocoanut glade, and the scent of the mango grove,
And sweet are the sands at the full o’ the moon with the sound of the voices we love;
But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam’s glee;
Row, brothers, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.
SUMMARY :
In this poem Sarojini Naidu describes the life of the fishermen. The leader of the fishermen is giving a call to his comrades to start their work early in the morning.
Stanza 1: Leader of the fisherman asks his fellow fishermen to get up early in the morning and asks them to start their work. The sky prays the sun for the morning light. He tells them there is no wind. The wind is sleeping in the arms of early morning. The poet compares the wind to the child who has cried all the night. He asks the fishermen to collect the nets from shore and free their boats to catch the fish. Fish is their wealth. Fishermen are the sons of the sea.
Stanza 2: The captain warns them not delay let them go hastily in the track of the sea bird. The leader says that sea is their mother. Because they born and brought up near the sea. Cloud is their brother because it helps them to work without the trouble of rain and waves. Waves are their friends because they help them to make smooth journey in the sea. The sea God protects them. He protects the lives of the fishermen by the storms.
Stanza 3: The shade of the coconut tree is sweet and the fragrance of the mango trees is also sweet. The sands on the sea shore is very sweet in the light of the full moon. They hear voices of their beloved. More than these sprinkling water of the sea and the wild foam are the sweetest. The leader requests his fellow fishermen to row to the place where the sky and the sea appears to meet.
