SOURCE: "The Poetic Outlook," in Sarojini Naidu: The Poet, S. Chand & Company Ltd., 1983, pp. 26-55.

In the following essay, Khan examines major themes and images in Naidu's work.

Sarojini was once a name to conjure with. She magnetised and attracted the young.¹ The quantity of her verse is not large, but her verse, in her own words, is a treasure "of song and sorrow and life and love."²

Variety of Subjects

Sarojini's poems tell us of her fancies and longings, her moments of ecstasy and moments of loneliness. In her thought-provoking poems she speculated on the transitoriness of life and the caprice of fortune, the purpose of life and the mystery of death. She is attracted to the great religions of the world Buddhism and Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Mythology interests her and she sings of the gods and goddesses of her own ancient land Krishna and Lakshmi...