“The Gift of India” Summary

“The Gift of India” Themes

• 

  British Imperialism and Indian Exploitation

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• 

  The Tragedy of War

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Gift of India”

• Lines 1-2

  Is there aught you need that my hands withhold,
  Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-6

  Lo! I have flung to the East and West
  Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
  And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
  To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-9

  Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
  Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
  Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-12

  They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
  They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
  On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
  Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
  Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
  And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
  And the far sad glorious vision I see
  Of the torn red banners of Victory?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  When the terror and tumult of hate shall cease
  And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
  And your love shall offer memorial thanks
  To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
  And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones
  Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!

  

  

  

  

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“The Gift of India” Symbols

• 

  Gifts

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“The Gift of India” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Polysyndeton

  

  

  

  

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“The Gift of India” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Aught
• Raiment
• Lo
• Yielded
• Stricken
• Sabres
• Alien
• Persian, Egyptian, Flanders and France
• Strewn
• Ye
• Compass
• Thrills thro'
• Tumult
• Cease
• Refashioned on anvils
• Refashioned
• Comrades
• Dauntless
• Martyred

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Gift of India”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Gift of India” Speaker

“The Gift of India” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Gift of India”

More “The Gift of India” Resources

• External Resources

  • "The Gift of India" Read Aloud — Listen to several different voices read the poem.

  • Footage of Sarojini Naidu Addressing the United States — Watch footage of Sarojini Naidu from her 1928 address to Americans.

  • Sarojini Naidu's Political Career — Learn more about Naidu's political activism.

  • Sarojini Naidu's Legacy — Read an Economic Times article on how Sarojini Naidu is commemorated today.

  • A Short Biography of Sarojini Naidu — Learn more about the poet in this brief biography from the British Library.

  • "Why the Indian Soldiers of WWI Were Forgotten" — A BBC.com article discussing Indian involvement in the First World War.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Sarojini Naidu

  • The Bangle Sellers