Poems on war: Daljit Nagra is inspired by Sarojini Naidu

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/26/daljit-nagra-sarojini-naidu-war-poem

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Sarojini Naidu's great poem reminds us of the considerable sacrifice made by Indians on behalf of the British empire. Naidu's use of personification appealed to me and inspired me to write about post-empire emigrants from India.

"The Calling" by Daljit Nagra

The night is abrim with the in-between children<br />they are summoning Mother India

<em>take us back take us back take us back</em>

but the Motherland is piping the old grief<br /><em>I was down on my knees on my knees</em>

<em>why did you run toward the moon</em><br /><em>for the cities with their engines of desire</em>

The night is abrim with the in-between children<br />their heads are down and are crying

<em>take us back take us back take us back</em>

<em>our songs are afresh with the plough and the oxen,</em><br /><em>the smell of open fires where the roti is crackling</em>

<em>and our roses are the roses of home.</em>

"The Gift of India" by Sarojini Naidu

Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,<br />Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?<br />Lo! I have flung to the East and the West<br />Priceless treasures torn from my breast,<br />And yielded the sons of my stricken womb<br />To the drum-beats of the duty, the sabers of doom.<br />Gathered like pearls in their alien graves<br />Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,<br />Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,<br />They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,<br />they are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance<br />On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France<br />Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep<br />Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?<br />Or the pride that thrills thro' my heart's despair<br />And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?<br />And the far sad glorious vision I see<br />Of the torn red banners of victory?<br />when the terror and the tumult of hate shall cease<br />And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,<br />And your love shall offer memorial thanks<br />To the comrades who fought on the dauntless ranks,<br />And you honour the deeds of the dauntless ones,<br />Remember the blood of my martyred sons!

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