Coromandel Fishers by Sarojini Naidu poem summary| Indian Writings in English| B.A English Literature 1st Year 2nd Semester

 B.A English Literature 

[1^st Year, 2^nd Semester] 

Core Paper IV: INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH 

UNIT 1: Poetry

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1.2. “Coromandel Fishers” by Sarojini Naidu

About Poet:

Sarojini Naidu was born in Bengali Hindu family at Hyderabad. She was educated in Cambridge, London. She was an Indian Independence activist and a poetess. She was the follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Her poems were written for children and her poems praised the nature, nation. Her poems are filled with patriotism. She also wrote poems on Love and Death. She became the president of Indian National Congress. She was the first woman to be appointed as Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She is known as the Nightingale of India. 

Poem:

Rise, brother, 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 brother, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam's glee;

Row, brother, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.

About Poem:

Coromandel fishers is an appraisal poem. This poem consists of three stanzas having four lines each. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABB.

Sarojini Naidu celebrates the fishermen’s life. The poetess motivates the people to work free. Through this poem, she has initiated the feel to protest for the freedom struggle. She concludes the poem with these lines “Row, brothers, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea”. 

Stanza 1:

In stanza 1, the poet asks the fishermen to “Rise” as the day is about to appear. She uses some symbols to tell this. First, she says that the wakening skies pray to the morning light which means that the sky which was sleeping in the night has woken up and is welcoming the light. Here the poet uses personification by using wakening (a human activity) for the sky (a non-living thing). 

Next, she says The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night meaning that the sea-wind that leads to the storm is now calm (as the tides rise in the night because of moon’s gravitational pull) because of the morning which is about to come. 

Thus the wind is just like the child which kept crying throughout the night and now he is quiet. Here the poet uses Similie to compare now calm wind with a child. By uses these two symbolic examples, she declares that the morning is near. 

In the 3rd line, the poet asks the fishermen to gather nets from the shore and set catamarans (a kind of boat used by fishermen) free in order to capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings o the sea. 

According to the poet, the fishermen should collect their nets from the sea-shores and take their boats because the tide is full of wealth (fishes, sea-gulls etc) and they are the kings. They just need to go to the sea to capture the wealth that is theirs. Hence they should hurry. 

Stanza 2:

In stanza 2, the poet asks the fishermen to do everything fast. The gull’s call is a symbol used to depict that morning is near. The poet calls sea as their mother, cloud as brother and sea waves as their comrades i.e. companions. Here again, the poet uses personification. 

Sea is considered the mother because it feeds them and helps them to sustain their life. Similarly, clouds are their brothers because they guide the fishermen while the waves are companions because they keep moving with them. The poet thus wants to say that they all are family and help each. 

She urges other not fear because even if they could not return back by the sunset, the sea-god which according to her, holds the sea-storm by the hair will save them (hide in his breast our lives). 

Stanza 3:

In the final stanza, the poet says that the shade of the coconut glade, the scent of mango groove and the sands at the O’ the moon with the sound of the voices they love are sweet and enjoyable but these joys are temporary. 

Rather they should go for the kiss of the spray (the water drops falling on the face while in the sea) and the dance of the foam’s glee (the foam which forms by the up-down movement of the tides) which according to the poet are sweeter and work-struggling. 

In the last line, she asks the fishermen to depart for the point in the sea where the sun meets the sky i.e. horizon. Symbolically it refers to infinity or a place without end. In this perspective, she asks the fishermen to dive into the infinite sea.

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