The Gifts of India: Stanza-Wise Explanation Stanza One

The Gifts of India: Stanza-wise explanation
Stanza One
Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabers of doom.
The first stanza begins with Mother India asking if there are any more sacrifices left for
her to make. She has given the world rich gifts of cloth, food grains, and precious things like gold.
India has flung priceless treasures of her land to the countries of the East and the West.
Moreover, she has sent her sons, that is, the youth of her land in distant battlegrounds to fight
someone else’s war. She questions what more can the nations of the world expect her to give
them.
(In order to understand these lines, we must look at India’s history — especially the time around
which this poem was written. It was 1915, in the middle of World War I, when India was still
under the British rule. A lot of Indian soldiers employed in the British forces fought in the World
War for the allies. The poem can be seen as the poet’s homage for these soldiers. Under the
British rule, India was exploited for its riches and resources. Here, the poet acknowledges this
fact. The very first line of the poem shows India’s sentiment of anger and the question ‘Is it not
enough that I have given everything?’)
The words ‘sabers of doom’ especially catch our attention. They represent the nature of the war
and the devastation it leaves in its wake.
Stanza Two:
Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.
In the second stanza of The Gift of India, the speaker, Mother India, shows the sacrifice of the
Indian soldiers from a different angle. These brave soldiers who fought and gave up their lives
are buried in mass graves in the foreign countries where they died. They were away from their
homeland, and even their bodies did not get the comfort of finally resting in their own motherland.
The speaker says that “they sleep by the Persian waves, and scattered like shells on Egyptian
sands”.
The speaker says that these dead soldiers “lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands”, further
intensifying the image of death and devastation. The bodies are scattered like carelessly trimmed
flowers (blossoms mown down by chance) in the battlefields of Flanders and France. The poet’s
use of the words ‘by chance’ speaks that in her eye, the soldiers did not deserve to die. Also, the
comparison (a simile here) of the warriors to ‘blossoms’ signifies how the motherland sees them
as valuable human resource. ‘Blood-brown meadows’ expresses the horrors of war and
warfronts in a rich poetic language. Though completely contrasting with the subject, it poses as
an apt metaphor.
Stanza three:
Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
And the far sad glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of Victory?
In the third stanza of The Gift of India, the speaker talks to the foreign countries. She asks them if
they can measure her grief and her tears or know her woe, her sufferings when she watches all
these. She says that they can never fathom the pride that thrills through her heart, in spite of her
despair. The poet suggests that the speaker, despite her sadness and deep rooted anguish, is
proud of her sons who have fought bravely and brought victory. She gives expression to the
voices of countless Indian mothers whose sons have fought in the war. The poet says that the
people of the warring nations can never comprehend the small hope that comforts these mothers
from the pain of praying for their sons’ safety.
She asks if they can understand the vision of glory she sees. It is a sad one, because she has
lost her sons for it. The torn red banner of victory, which has come at the expense of so much
blood, is sad and meaningless for her.
Stanza four:
When the terror and the tumult of hate shall cease
And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
And your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!
In the last stanza of the poem, the speaker talks about the ensuing peace after the war and the
martyrdom of the countless soldiers. The terror and tumult of hate which has created the war
shall end and there will be peace. Life will be refashioned, it will go back to normal with
drastic new changes. People will pay their respects to the dead who fought in the war, the
comrades in many ranks who gave their life. They will honour the deeds of those soldiers,
who will never be forgotten. When such a time of peace comes, the speaker asks that the
blood of her martyred sons be remembered as well, that they be honoured as well.
What is curious here is the poet’s use of phrase ‘on anvils of peace’. This implies that the
process of getting life back to normal will not be an easy one. It comments on the aftereffects of
wars in general.
The poem ‘The gift of India’ started as a celebration of India’s contribution to the causes of
others. But it ends up as a strong war poem, concentrating both on the evils of destruction wars
bring, and the mourning, as well as the courage, honour and recognition of the heroes who fight
in it. As always, Naidu’s poem arouses a sense of pride and patriotism in the hearts of her
countrymen.

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