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Poem’s Name - To India- My Native Land
Poet’s Name - Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
Genre - Petrarchan sonnet
Language - English
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, a radical thinker and one of the first Indian educators to introduce Western knowledge and science to Bengali young men, was born on April 18, 1809, in Calcutta, India. He was a poet and the assistant headmaster of Hindu College.
Derozio, who was of Portuguese and Indian ancestry, identified as mostly Indian, regrets the fact that India has come under British dominion. Despite succumbing to cholera at a young age, Derozio left several fine poems in his wake, including the narrative poem "The Faquir of Jungheera." One of the first Indian poets to compare poetry in English with comfort and confidence was.
A fourteen-line sonnet with three Quatrains and a closing couplet, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio's "To India My Native Land" is a song of intense love and emotion to his "Fallen nation," India. The poem was released before Derozio's untimely death from cholera in 1831 at the age of 22. It is one of the best-known poems out there.
Summary
The first line starts with “My country! In thy days of glory past”. The wording expresses the poet's wailing over his nation's suffering. He said that the nation had a beautiful past during the period before the British. According to the poet, India was a holy land where her residents revered her as a deity.
The poet questions his country, which he had before lauded for her wonderful beauty and sanctity, where its splendor and respect have vanished to in the present. The terms "thy" and "reverence" both refer to you. The poet questions what happened to the honor and respect that his nation once enjoyed. Notably, India is shown as the Mother, as is cherished in Hindustan.
The poet claims in the second stanza that her eagle pinion is finally fastened down. Wings and ground are both referred to as pinions. This signifies that an eagle is a bird that flies at a high altitude and is constantly free and independent. India has been enslaved and bound, however, like an eagle.
She has since fallen to her knees in the filth. To grovel is to crawl. Lowly equates to weak. The nation has so lost its lofty position as a result of being made into slaves.
Context and Technique in to India My Native Land
In terms of both content and technique, To India, My Native Land is a classic Deroozian poem. The fundamental theme is patriotism. The sorrow of defeat, the loss of glory, and the loss of independence are the overarching themes of this poetry. The poet alludes to India's former splendor by using the image of a golden bird. Words like "hallo," "deity," and "worship" raise the nation to greatness, but phrases like "chained," "grovelling," and "lowly dust" bring out the contract forcefully. Readers are invited to share in the poet's pain and sorrows.
Themes in the Poem
Derozio wants to "go into depths of time" and recreate the glory of India's past by writing about it. With time, this wonderful past might be forgotten and no one might ever see or read about it again. The poet uses figurative language. India is compared to a deity in this metaphor.
A metaphor compares two things without using the words like or as. My country! a cry of pain that reverberates throughout the poem, opens it. The poet laments the deplorable and frightening situation of the present with a heart overflowing with anguish. In "My Nation! Where is the respect that was shown during your lifetime?"
Tribute to India
The sonnet "To India My Native Land" was composed as a tribute to India. the author's motherland. The poem demonstrates the influence of medieval and romantic poets. Derozio's use of the rhyme scheme abab abcc dedc ff is most obviously an adaptation of Edmund Spencer's "Amoretti" rhyme scheme.
Derozio had a deep affinity for India. His deepest desire was to sing about India's glory and to pay attention to the aspirations of the Indian people. He wrote intending to ignite Indian adolescents' nationalistic pride and desire. He was horrified to observe India's deplorable state, along with her poverty and slavery. But he was proud of her for her deep cultural heritage and strong morals.
My ratings for the poem - 4 on 5
Written by Garima Jain
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