Village Song 1

HONEY, child, honey, child, whither are you going?

Would you cast your jewels all to the breezes blowing?
Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed
you?
Would you grieve the lover who is riding forth to wed you?

Mother mine, to the wild forest I am going,

Where upon the champa boughs the champa buds are
blowing;
To the köil-haunted river-isles where lotus lilies glisten,
The voices of the fairy folk are calling me: O listen!

Honey, child, honey, child, the world is full of pleasure,

Of bridal-songs and cradle-songs and sandal-scented
leisure.
Your bridal robes are in the loom, silver and saffron
glowing,
Your bridal cakes are on the hearth: O whither are you
going?

The bridal-songs and cradle-songs have cadences of

sorrow,
 The laughter of the sun to-day, the wind of death to-
morrow.
Far sweeter sound the forest-notes where forest-streams
are falling;
O mother mine, I cannot stay, the fairy-folk are calling.

Analysis (ai): “Village Song” is a poem that depicts a young woman’s

yearning for freedom and nature. The speaker, a mother, tries to persuade
her daughter to stay home, offering the comforts of marriage and material
possessions. However, the daughter is drawn to the allure of the forest,
where she believes she’ll find true happiness and harmony.

The poem’s exploration of the tension between societal expectations and

personal desires reflects the changing social norms of Naidu’s time in India.
Women were typically expected to marry and raise families, but the poem
suggests that there were also women who sought a life outside of these
traditional roles.

The poem’s imagery and language are lush and evocative, capturing the
beauty and allure of the natural world. The use of repetition and the refrain
“O listen” creates a sense of urgency and longing. The poem’s musicality,
with its rhythmic language and cadences, adds to its lyrical quality.

Compared to Naidu’s other works, “Village Song” stands out for its focus on
the female voice and its exploration of the themes of nature, freedom, and
self-discovery. It is a powerful and moving poem that resonates with readers
today, regardless of their gender or background. (hide)

Introduction

The Village Song by Sarojini Naidu is one of the great pieces of Indian poetry
showing Indian motherhood and an approach by an Indian girl to her married
life. The entire poem talks about the dialogues between an Indian mother
and her daughter regarding her marriage.

About the poet

Sarojini Naidu (1879 –1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. Her
mother was a poetess. She inherited the instinct for poetry from her mother.
She was an important figure in India’s struggle for independence from
colonial rule. Naidu’s work as a poet earned her the sobriquet ‘the
Nightingale of India’, or ‘Bharat Kokila’ by Mahatma Gandhi because of the
colour, imagery, and lyrical quality of her poetry.

Theme

The theme of the poem is the comparison between the world of human
beings that abounds in material pleasure in material pleasure and the world
of nature that is contrary to it.

Stanza 1

HONEY, child, honey, child, whither are you going?

Would you cast your jewels all to the breezes blowing?

Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed you?

Would you grieve the lover who is riding forth to wed you?

The poem opens with a scene of a rural household, where the mother is
pleading with her daughter not to run off. It’s the occasion of her marriage,
the bride is bedecked with beautiful attire and ornaments. Though she is
bedecked beautifully, she is not happy. Don’t know why, maybe she is tender
aged, or she is showing childlike behavior she doesn’t want to get married.
Seems she is bonded strongly with nature and feels unwilling to be shifted
into a marital bond. The girl is very young thus she can’t accept a married
life for the time being. She can’t even think of that, seems she is standing for
the mother’s will. But her mind is still kiddish, she prefers to stay unmarried.
At her age, her present free life is far more enjoyable than a dull married life.
Stanza 2

Mother mine, to the wild forest I am going,

Where upon the champa boughs the champa buds are blowing:

To the Koil-haunted river-isles where lotus lilies glisten,

The voices of the fairy folk are calling me: O listen!

The girl replies, that she is going to the forest where Champa trees are laden
with Champa buds and beautiful flowers. The river flowing by the forest has
many tiny islands that are home to Koil (Asian koel-a bird). The shining lotus
and lilies add more charm to the forest. She tells the fairy folk is calling her.
The girl is fascinated by her charming nature. In her perception married life is
mundane. Thus, she prefers pleasure from nature to a dull married life.

Stanza 3

Honey, child, honey, child, the world is full of pleasure,

Of bridal-songs and cradle-songs and sandal-scented leisure.

Your bridal robes are in the loom, silver and saffron glowing,

Your bridal cakes are on the hearth: O whither are you going?

The mother again tries to catch the daughter’s attention. She reminds her
about the many pleasures of the world and wedded life. Bridal songs are
beautiful. Motherhood and cradle songs will give much pleasure and fulfill the
life. Mother also reminds her of the pleasure of marital leisure. The mother
then brings her attention toward her attire. Her bridal robes are made using
a loom in glowing saffron and silver color combination. Her bridal cakes and
dishes are getting ready. Her mother reminds her of all these to console her
and tries to stay back in the wedding happiness.

Stanza 4

The bridal-songs and cradle-songs have cadences of sorrow,

The laughter of the sun today, the wind of death tomorrow

Far sweeter sound the forest-notes where forest-streams are falling;

O mother mine, I cannot stay, the fairy-folk are calling.

The bride’s sorrow fades the happiness of the wedding celebration. As a
philosopher the girl says that the happiness of life is not permanent, it will
come and fade. Today’s happiness maybe tomorrow’s sorrow. She still finds
the sounds of the forest with streams and tiny islands is a happier place. The
charm of the streams, forest, and the songs of the Koil are an endless source
of pleasure, they never fade away. The poem ends with the strong
determination of the girl to leave the home and spend her life in the lap of
nature, which can give ultimate pleasure to her.

Village Song 2

By Sarojini Naidu

HONEY, child, honey, child, whither are you going?

Would you cast your jewels all to the breezes blowing?

Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed you?

Would you grieve the lover who is riding forth to wed you?

Mother mine, to the wild forest I am going,

Where upon the champa boughs the champa buds are blowing;

To the köil-haunted river-isles where lotus lilies glisten,

The voices of the fairy folk are calling me: O listen!

Honey, child, honey, child, the world is full of pleasure,

Of bridal-songs and cradle-songs and sandal-scented leisure.

Your bridal robes are in the loom, silver and saffron glowing,

Your bridal cakes are on the hearth: O whither are you going?
The bridal-songs and cradle-songs have cadences of sorrow,The
laughter of the sun to-day, the wind of death to-morrow.Far sweeter
sound the forest-notes where forest-streams are falling;O mother
mine, I cannot stay, the fairy-folk are calling.

Sarojini is a singer of heart and the songs she has are the
songs of her heart. Just through the village song, she tells of the
daughter reared from the cradle to go away in a bridal palanquin.
This is but our life.The call of the champa blooms is irresistible and
one cannot resist. Here things grow to take their own recourse.
So are our children. Daughters are never our own. What can they
too do? But man-made restrictions are so cruel and mindless.
Our life too hangs on in between the cradle song and
the bridal song. But above all, the farewell song is the last to
be bidden. It is really a village song, the song of the Indian
villages and the Indian people, how their life and feeling! But
under the cover of the village song, she tells of daughters, their
journey of life from the cradle to the palanquin. How does the
love of the champak bloomscall them? How do the cuckoos? How
do the streams and forests

Charm them? What to say about the song of life? What about time?
How do the things change it here? How do the people? How this
lifeof desire and expectation? One day she used to toddle as a
toddler. But the same girl child develops into a young maiden to be
bidden bye.The Village Song is not only the song of agrarian and
rural society in which dwell they, their set of norms and
nomenclature, but apart fromhow do they think, take to life and
think about? It is actually the songof India, the love song of India; it
is all about the life of a village girl,an Indian girl, how their life and
conditions and what it to befall her?The same small girl who grows
in the fair country under the ruralbackground one day goes to
another’s house without feeling about the pros and cons of life.
Happiness or sorrow, it all depends on herfate, the resources of the
land and the country and the family. Our lifeis fraught with
difficulty, none can contradict it. The village girlunaware of
her fate knows it not all though she can sense it a bit.The Village
Song is a song of love in which one can read the life ofan Indian girl,
her life from that of a growing child unto the old age,the structure
of a society lies it drawn. It is for us to analyze from thegender bias
point of view, how had it been social taboos, how still
thepsychological fears marauding the self of a woman! How the
courseof life? How our nomenclature and protocol? How the
situations andconditions? How had it been the condition of a woman
in the world?The poem is not a village song, but a cradle song, a
bridal song andhere we can hear the saddest tunes of the shehnoi in
which a girl as abride is departing for her newly searched home,
that is the groom’shouse just like an unknown stranger.When as a
child, she swings and the mother gets pleasure in seeingher, taking
it to not that she will go away one day. But when shegrows up,
the champak blooms start tempting her and the cuckoostaking
her to the forest bordering the river Yamuna from where shewill
waterful earthen pitchers. But mark it that in the Yamuna lives it

Kaliya nag. The forests are not free from snakes and wild beasts.
Thelonely tracts too may be fearful. While reading this poem,
the purdah system, ghumta, genderinequality, drawing of the
Lakshamanrekha, house as the periphery ofthinking, patriarchal
hegemony, gender discrimination, child bearingdeaths, social
taboos, societal restrictions, etc. flash over the mind’splane.In the
first stanza of the poem the mother of the girl asks her about
hergoing, where she is going is and keeps asking about. Will she
forsakeher jewels to the breezes? Will she leave the mother who has
fed her,reared her with so much so care, love, affection and
sympathy andbonding? Will she make her love aggrieved that is
coming to with hisIndian wedding dreams? Every daughter to her
mother is but flower-like, so honeyed and sweet.The daughter in her
response to the mother says it that she is going to the forest here
upon the champa boughs have flowered beautifullywith the
champa buds, at once catching our dream, joy
andimagination. The koels cooing from the isles and the lotuses and
liliesin bloom give an additional beauty to the domain, decorate the
dreamsof ours. The fairy folks continue to call her. If this be the
picture,panorama and landscape of the madhuvana, how to resist
it? How toresist the temptation of the sweet scent coming,
fragrance somaddening and the things in bloom and buds? Give
an ear to andlisten!Again, the mother reminds her of the wedding
clothes being made on the loom which she will as a bride wear it
one day. Bridal cakes arebeing baked on the hearth and these will
arrive when the wedding daycomes it. The world is full of
pleasure. The cradle song with thelullabies and swings, bridal
songs with bands, dances and songs andsandal-applied imagery, all
are but the beautiful, lyrical and fancifulside of life which a mother
has to witness it all.

But behind all these there is an internal rhyme scheme of the sad
tune,the unheard sad note of life which she knows it not. Bridal
songs, lovesongs, cradle songs, lullabies outwardly these appear to
be so lovelyand charming, but are not. Those who sing lullabies
know it how tocare and caress the babies to sleep, letting it not to
be disturbed evenby the wind, taking time to repose them. Only a
Yasoda can say it.Those who sing it bridal songs know it well how
heart-trending thedeparting time of the brides! Even the musical
bands and their tunesweep and wail it inconsolably. A bride in tears,
have you seen her?See and say it after. First see her and then say
to. Many of us wouldhave experienced the brides while going on
the bullock carts andcrossing the dry river beds and teardrops
lining the cheeks as a trickleof water streaming over. But who to
wipe them? Man a traveller of the paths, unknown paths of life and
the world! Whose daughter sheis, who will give solace to and
comfort her thereon? It is really amelting time.But the daughter
takes to not the words of caution. She insists ongoing there to
attend their call, the mild breeze blowing, the riverbabbling by,
the forest tract full of dreamy and scented blooms, the scenery so
beautiful and charming and lovely to the core. The Village Song is
but a song of the Indian Mira and the IndianRadha, a life song
never tuned like this, as such, she has presentedhere. It is a song
of Radha and Yamuna and the gopis and Krishna fluting. The song
of love is as such but we read it not the saddest notes of
music and song, what it pains us?What had it been in the heart of
Radha, what had it been in the heart of Mira, could we feel it, feel
it? To be classical is not to leave the contact with life. One who can
feel it ‘mann’ (inner mind, inner heart)can actually know it all. It is
actually a song of the Indian champas and the Indian maid as
growing daughter so affectionate and dear unable to resist the call
of the madhuvana, the sweet, honeyed woodland, taking
permission from her mother to let her go but she instructing her
otherwise as perher motherly personal experience of human society
and .
Village
Songs