The Coromandel Fishers by Sarojini Naidu analysis and line by line explanation

 

The Coromandel Fishers

by Sarojini Naidu

 

SAROJINI NAIDU

*      Indian political activist and poet

*      A proponent of civil rights, woman’s emancipation and anti imperialistic ideas

*      Important figure in India’s struggle for independence

*      Sobriquet “ Nightingale of India” by Mahatma Gandhi

*      First Indian president of Indian National Congress

Works

*      The Golden Threshold (1905)

*      The Bird of Time (1912)

*      The Broken Wing

*      Muhammad Jinnah : An Ambassador of Unity

*      The Sceptered Flute (1928)

*      The Feather of the Dawn (1961)

*      The Indian Weavers

POEM

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 coconut 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.

EXPLANATION

*      The poet describes the lives of fishermen

*      The leader of the fishermen is giving a call to his comrades to start their work early in the morning

*      Coromandel fishes refers to the fishermen on the coromandel coast of South indie

*      The early morning sky is compared to someone  waking up from sleep . The leader awakens other fishermen that the sun has risen

*      The wind is not blowing, it is like a tired child who had cried all night, sleeping peacefully in it s mother’s arms

*      It is right time to start their journey

*       they should gather their nets and set the boats free

*      They are the sons of the sea therefore they have right to capture the leaping wealth of the ocean, which means fishes

*      The fishermen call themselves as the king of the sea

*       the narrator hurries his colleagues because they should follow the sea gull’s call.

*      The seagull knows where the fishes are

*      The sea, the cloud, the waves are also close to the fishermen like mother brothers and friends.

*      The sea God is thee protector of the sea and he will protect them

*      The fishermen love the land. The shade of coconut grove, the smell of mango grove and sounds of the  nature but the foam , the waves and the sea is more appealing to them

*      The sun is setting and it is time to go back to the land, so brothers row the boat to thee edge of thee sea

*      It metaphorically reflects the poet’s desire for free India and thus she encourages the people of the nation to hasten their struggle.

Figures of Speech

*      Simile : like a child that has cried all night

*      Personification : Sea Gull’s call

Low sky mates with the sky

*      Sarojini Naidu uses poetry as a veritable portrait gallery of Indian folk characters luring the lives and carrying on their different vocations against a rural background which is faithful representation of the Indian rural landscape.

*      With its vividly realized flora and fauna, the picture of India and the life of her masses thus evoked in  a beautiful romantic way

*      The coromandel fishers not only represent the fishermen’s identity with the sea and with the community but also the folk sense of order and discipline.

*      It evokes a folk vocation which is yet untouched by modern technology and sophistication.