Songs of Life & Death: With an Introduction by Edmund Gosse

By Sarojini Naidu and Edmund Gosse

“Songs of Life & Death” is a collection of poetry written by Indian poet and activist Sarojini Naidu. Contents include: “The Poet To Death”, “Corn-Grinders”, “Suttee”, “Life”, “To The God Of Pain”, “My Dead Dream”, “Dirge: In Sorrow Of Her Bereavement”, “In Remembrance: Violet Clarke”, etc. A moving collection not to be missed by fans and collectors of Nairu's wonderful work. Naidu (1879–1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. She was a staunch proponent of women's emancipation, civil rights, and anti-imperialistic ideas, playing an important role in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Her work as a poet includes both children's poems and others with more mature themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy, earning her the sobriquet “Nightingale of India”. Her most famous work is "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" (1912), which remains widely read to this day. Other notable works by this author include: “The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring” (1912), “The Broken Wing - Songs of Love, Death & Destiny" (1917), and “Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity” (1919). Read & Co. is publishing this brand new poetry collection complete with an introduction by Edmund Gosse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528789493

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was an Indian poet and political activist. Born in Hyderabad to a Bengali Brahmin family, she graduated from the University of Madras at twelve before journeying to England to study at King’s College London and Cambridge. At nineteen, she married physician Paidipati Govindarajulu Naidu, with whom she would raise five children. Following the partition of Bengal in 1905, Naidu became involved with the Indian independence movement. A close ally of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, she travelled across India to speak on social issues such as welfare and the emancipation of women, as well as to advocate for the end of colonial rule. After travelling to London to work alongside Annie Besant, Naidu devoted herself to Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement, braving arrest during the Salt March of 1930 and promoting the principles of civil disobedience across the globe. As one of the most respected poets of twentieth century India, she published such collections as The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time (1912), and The Broken Wing (1917).

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INTRODUCTION

It is only at the request, that is to say at the command, of a dear and valued friend that I consent to write these few sentences. It would seem that an introduction can only be needed when the personage to be introduced is unknown in a world prepared to welcome her but still ignorant of her qualities. This is certainly not the case with Mrs. Naidu, whose successive volumes, of which this is the third, have been received in Europe with approval, and in India with acclamation. Mrs. Naidu is, I believe, acknowledged to be the most accomplished living poet of India—at least, of those who write in English, since what lyric wonders the native languages of that country may be producing I am not competent to say. But I do not think that any one questions the supreme place she holds among those Indians who choose to write in our tongue. Indeed, I am not disinclined to believe that she is the most brilliant, the most original, as well as the most correct, of all the natives of Hindustan who have written in English. And I say this without prejudice to the fame of that delicious Toru Dutt, so exquisite in her fragility, whose life and poems it was my privilege to reveal to the world thirty years ago. For in the case of Toru Dutt, beautiful as her writings were, there was much in them to be excused by her youth, her solitude, the extremely pathetic circumstances of her brief and melancholy career. In the maturer work of Mrs. Naidu I find nothing, or almost nothing, which the severest criticism could call in question.

In a gracious sentence, published seven or eight years ago, Sarojini Naidu declared that it was the writer of this preface who first showed her "the way to the golden