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Ecstasy
The 'Ecstasy' is a short poem. It consists of 17 lines. Its rhyme scheme is abab. It is remarkable for its lucidity of diction and spontaneity of expression. It is important for the richness of melody, emotional intensity and Indian imagery. Through the repetition of phrase and exclamatory sentences, the poet expresses her joyous experience of the spring. The use of imperative sentences expresses the poet's ecstatic response.
69 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 1988
4 people want to read
About the author
Sarojini Naidu
64 books59 followersSarojini Naidu or Sarojini Chattopadhyaya (February 13, 1879, Hyderabad - March 2, 1949, Lucknow), also known by the sobriquet Bharatiya Kokila (The Nightingale of India), was a child prodigy, freedom fighter, and poet. Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.
She was active in the Indian Independence Movement, joining Mahatma Gandhi in the Salt March to Dandi, and then leading the Dharasana Satyagraha after the arrests of Gandhi, Abbas Tyabji, and Kasturba Gandhi.
She was active in the Indian Independence Movement, joining Mahatma Gandhi in the Salt March to Dandi, and then leading the Dharasana Satyagraha after the arrests of Gandhi, Abbas Tyabji, and Kasturba Gandhi.
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February 10, 2023
In this heartrending lyric, the disposition of the poetess in one of lassitude. She has enjoyed the diverse blessings of the world, say, the beauties of nature, for too long a time.
Her eyes are exhausted of such blessings, and so she wishes her lover to close her eyes with a kiss.
Just as the eyes are overwhelmed and blinded by too powerful a light, and one does not like to look at such a light, so also the poet does no longer want to see the brilliant and gorgeous scenes and sights of the world. Even her lips are weary of singing and she does not want to sing any longer.
Hence she implores to her lover to hush her lips with a kiss.
Even love is an excruciating yoke for her under which her soul is bent low like an attractive flower under the saddle of tiny rain- drops. The intensity and inventiveness of this remarkable image is worth noting. The soul is compared to a fragile and handsome rose, and love to rain-drops which burden a flower, as the beloved's soul is fraught by the burden of love. The lover should come and shelter her soul from this burden.
Love is, no doubt, an ecstasy but now she is worn-out even of this gratification. Nothing can be more greeting and sweet than the face of one's object of love, but the beauty of the lover's face is too astounding for her soul and she wants him to protect her even from the clarity of his own face.
In other words, simply loving and the presence of the lover are no longer enough for her. Only the consummation of love can alleviate her spiritual distress.
She craves for such a fulfilment, she seeks this shelter or refuge from the intense pain that torments her soul.
Who is the object of love of the poetess?
He may be the divine, the Eternal, the Supreme. The poem then becomes an expression of the soul's yearning for union with the divine. It is the shelter of divine love that she seeks; it is only in His embrace that she can and release from her agony. Such an interpretation in justified, for as we know Sarojini was profoundly influenced both by the allegory of Radha and Krishna, and the love-philosophy of the Bhakti saints.
'Ecstasy’, a Greek word connoting ‘standing out of oneself’, is used to illustrate a state of passionate emotional exhilaration, in which everything else, except the emotion concerned, is forgotten.
The title is exceedingly appropriate and evocative, for it is just such an emotional state that has been described in this short love-lyric of two stanzas, each of five lines.
Her eyes are exhausted of such blessings, and so she wishes her lover to close her eyes with a kiss.
Just as the eyes are overwhelmed and blinded by too powerful a light, and one does not like to look at such a light, so also the poet does no longer want to see the brilliant and gorgeous scenes and sights of the world. Even her lips are weary of singing and she does not want to sing any longer.
Hence she implores to her lover to hush her lips with a kiss.
Even love is an excruciating yoke for her under which her soul is bent low like an attractive flower under the saddle of tiny rain- drops. The intensity and inventiveness of this remarkable image is worth noting. The soul is compared to a fragile and handsome rose, and love to rain-drops which burden a flower, as the beloved's soul is fraught by the burden of love. The lover should come and shelter her soul from this burden.
Love is, no doubt, an ecstasy but now she is worn-out even of this gratification. Nothing can be more greeting and sweet than the face of one's object of love, but the beauty of the lover's face is too astounding for her soul and she wants him to protect her even from the clarity of his own face.
In other words, simply loving and the presence of the lover are no longer enough for her. Only the consummation of love can alleviate her spiritual distress.
She craves for such a fulfilment, she seeks this shelter or refuge from the intense pain that torments her soul.
Who is the object of love of the poetess?
He may be the divine, the Eternal, the Supreme. The poem then becomes an expression of the soul's yearning for union with the divine. It is the shelter of divine love that she seeks; it is only in His embrace that she can and release from her agony. Such an interpretation in justified, for as we know Sarojini was profoundly influenced both by the allegory of Radha and Krishna, and the love-philosophy of the Bhakti saints.
'Ecstasy’, a Greek word connoting ‘standing out of oneself’, is used to illustrate a state of passionate emotional exhilaration, in which everything else, except the emotion concerned, is forgotten.
The title is exceedingly appropriate and evocative, for it is just such an emotional state that has been described in this short love-lyric of two stanzas, each of five lines.
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