Sarojini Naidu's "Bird Sanctuary"

Named as the nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu ,is essentially a poetess of Indian flora and fauna. Nature was a spring of perpetual bliss to her.' The 'Bird Sanctuary' depicts the ideal refuge of God that offers ideal fostering space and nurturing place for every bird regardless of its identity. The poem is addressed to the Master of the Birds. There is festive joy as the birds sing tumultuously. The enchanting aura they craft herald the Festival of Dawn. Birds of multitudinous colors produce music entrancing and melodious.

The birds strive to sing carols from their throats of amber, ebony and fawn and passionately evocate the pastoral arena of India. The bulbul, the oriole, the honey bird and the shama are perceived fluttering from the high boughs sodden with nectar and due. As the atmosphere is animated with colour and movement, the gull exhibits its silver sea-washed coat, and the hoopoe and the kingfisher their sapphire-blue. The wild gay pigeons envisage a home, amid the tree tops and endeavour to achieve the same, filling their beaks with silken down and banyan twigs. The pervading greenery is reflective of fertility and prosperity in the lives of the birds. Their ascent phrased as "sunward flight" signifies their aspiration to accomplish new heights. The green parrots pose themselves as marauders who loot the ripe-red figs.

With personal and autobiographical ramifications, the poetess asserts that God grants sanctuary and shelter even to a bird with a broken wing. The poet indubitably refers to herself as a bird with a broken wing. The poet persistently battled against ill-heath that plagued her throughout her life. Nevertheless, she seeks solace in the fact that THE Almighty will never desert her.

The poem is allegorical and has nationalistic significance. The poem was penned in 1971 when India lay in the vortex of freedom struggle. The multitude of birds that commemorate the generic festival of dawn may allude to the unambiguous Dawn of Independence. It at once emblematizes Gandhi's Tolstoy Farm, Tagore's vision and Nehru's New India.

The bird is the most apt emblem to depict the concept of liberty from caged existence. In the poem, she combines the sensibilities of Keats and Shelley in her outlook. That is, the lyricism of Keats and the revolutionary zeal of Shelley. As Dr. Rajalakshmy claims:" She unfolds the beauties, transformations and the significances of our natural world. It reveals a world of colour, perfume and melody."