Summary
"Wandering Singers" is a lyric poem by Sarojini Naidu, one of India's most celebrated poets, also known as Bharat Kokila (The Nightingale of India). The poem is from the perspective of a group of nomadic musicians who travel from place to place, singing songs and playing their lutes. They are guided not by personal desire but by the voice of the wind, which serves as a metaphor for destiny and fate.
The singers consider the entire world their home and all people their family. Their songs are about the glory of ancient cities, the beauty of women long gone, heroic battles of the past, and the crowns of bygone kings. They also sing of emotions -- happiness, simplicity, and sorrow. They have no attachment to any place, person, or ambition. They do not pause for love or joy; instead, they follow wherever the wind takes them, accepting their wandering life as their fate.
The poem captures the free-spirited life of travelling minstrels and celebrates the themes of universal brotherhood, freedom, and acceptance of destiny.
Themes
- Freedom and Wanderlust: The singers roam freely through forests and streets, unbound by any place or possession. Their life embodies total freedom and a love of travel.
- Universal Brotherhood: The line "All men are our kindred, the world is our home" expresses the idea that all humans are one family and the entire world belongs to everyone equally.
- Fate and Destiny: The wind symbolises fate. The singers do not choose their path; they follow wherever the wind calls them. "The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate" makes this theme explicit.
- Nostalgia and the Past: Their songs celebrate the glory of ancient cities, the beauty of women long dead, old battles, and old kings -- evoking a deep sense of nostalgia for a bygone era.
- Detachment: The singers are detached from worldly desires. No love or joy can make them stay. They live in the present moment without gathering hopes or sowing dreams.
- Music and Art: Music is central to the singers' identity. They carry lutes and are "ever-singing," showing that art and music give meaning and purpose to their wandering lives.
Literary Devices
- Personification: The wind is personified as having a "voice" that calls the singers and guides their footsteps. It is treated as a living entity that determines their destiny.
- Metaphor: "The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate" -- the wind is a metaphor for destiny and the unseen force that guides their lives.
- Repetition: The word "echoing" is repeated in "echoing forest and echoing street" for emphasis and musical effect. The phrase "wandering feet/footsteps" recurs across stanzas to reinforce the theme of travel.
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows a consistent rhyming couplet pattern (AABB) -- feet/street, roam/home, shed/dead, kings/things, sow/go, wait/fate -- giving it a song-like, melodious quality.
- Alliteration: Examples include "wandering... wind... we" and "happy... home," creating a musical rhythm fitting for a poem about singers.
- Rhetorical Question: "What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow?" is a rhetorical question implying the singers have no personal hopes or dreams -- they live only for their music and wandering.
- Imagery: Vivid images such as "echoing forest," "the sword of old battles," "the crown of old kings," and "laughter and beauty of women long dead" paint rich pictures of the singers' world and the subjects of their songs.
- Synecdoche: "The sword of old battles" -- the sword represents entire wars and conflicts; "the crown of old kings" -- the crown represents the reign and power of kings.
Character Analysis
The Wandering Singers (Speakers of the Poem)
- Free-spirited: They are nomadic musicians who roam without any fixed destination, guided only by the wind.
- Inclusive and Compassionate: They see all people as their relations (kindred) and the whole world as their home, showing a deep sense of universal love.
- Keepers of History: Through their songs (lays), they preserve the memory of ancient cities, past heroes, old kings, and forgotten women, acting as oral historians.
- Emotionally Detached: No love or joy can make them stop or stay. They have accepted their wandering life without complaint.
- Fatalistic: They believe in fate and accept whatever destiny brings. The wind is their guide, and they follow it without question.
About the Poet -- Sarojini Naidu
- Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was a famous Indian poet and a major freedom fighter.
- She was given the title Bharat Kokila (The Nightingale of India) for her beautiful poems and songs.
- She was the first woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress (1925) and the first woman Governor of an Indian state (Uttar Pradesh, 1947).
- Her poetry collections include The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time, and The Broken Wing.
Glossary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Lute | A kind of stringed musical instrument |
| Roam | To wander or travel without a fixed destination |
| Kindred | Relations; people related to you; family |
| Lays | Songs or stories (especially narrative poems meant to be sung) |
| Lustre | Shine, brightness, glory |
| Shed | Lost or faded (in this context, glory that has faded) |
| Tarry | To wait or delay; to stay longer than intended |
| Fate | Destiny; the course of events beyond a person's control |
| Wandering | Moving from place to place without a settled route |
| Echoing | Resounding; reflecting sound repeatedly |
| Sorrowful | Full of sadness or grief |
| Sobriquet | A nickname or title given to a person |
Stanza-by-Stanza Analysis
Stanza 1 (Lines 1-4)
"Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet, / Through echoing forest and echoing street, / With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam, / All men are our kindred, the world is our home."
The singers introduce themselves as wandering musicians. The wind guides them through forests and streets. They carry lutes and sing constantly. They consider all people their family and the entire world their home. This stanza establishes the themes of freedom, music, and universal brotherhood.
Stanza 2 (Lines 5-8)
"Our lays are of cities whose lustre is shed, / The laughter and beauty of women long dead; / The sword of old battles, the crown of old kings, / And happy and simple and sorrowful things."
This stanza describes the content of their songs. They sing about the faded glory of ancient cities, the beauty of women who lived long ago, the weapons of past wars, the power of old rulers, and a range of emotions -- happiness, simplicity, and sorrow. Their songs preserve history and human experience.
Stanza 3 (Lines 9-12)
"What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow? / Where the wind calls our wandering footsteps we go. / No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait: / The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate."
The final stanza reveals the singers' philosophy of life. They do not accumulate hopes or dreams. They simply follow the wind. Neither love nor joy can make them stop. They fully accept the wind as the voice of their fate. This stanza reinforces the themes of detachment and destiny.