Analysis of In Praise Of Henna

Sarojini Naidu 1879 (Hyderabad) – 1949 (Lucknow)



A KOKILA called from a henna-spray:
Lira! liree! Lira! liree!
Hasten, maidens, hasten away
To gather the leaves of the henna-tree.
Send your pitchers afloat on the tide,
Gather the leaves ere the dawn be old,
Grind them in mortars of amber and gold,
The fresh green leaves of the henna-tree.

A kokila called from a henna-spray:
Lira! liree! Lira! liree!
Hasten maidens, hasten away
To gather the leaves of the henna-tree.
The tilka's red for the brow of a bride,
And betel-nut's red for lips that are sweet;
But, for lily-like fingers and feet,
The red, the red of the henna-tree.


Scheme AAABcddb AAABceeb
Poetic Form
Metre 01110101 101101 10101001 1100110101 111001101 100110111 1101011001 011110101 01110101 101101 10101001 1100110101 011101101 0101111111 111011001 010110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 587
Words 104
Sentences 13
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 222
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
135

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so. more…

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