3 Sonnets (c. 1830/40)

Michael Madhusdan Dutt

Sonnets

by Michael Madhusudan Dutt

I.

I am not rich, nay, nor the future heir
To sparkling gold or silver heaped on store;
There is no marble blushing on my floor
With thousand varied dies:—no gilded chair,
5
No cushions, carpets that by riches are
Brought from the Persian land, or Turkish shore; [1]
There is no menial waiting at my door
Attentive to the knell: and all things rare,
10
Born in remotest regions, that shine in
And grace the rich-man’s hall, are wanting here.
These are not things that by blind Fate have been
Allotted ever to the poor man’s share:
These are not things, these eyes have ever seen,
Tho’ their proud names have sounded in this ear!

 

II.

But oh! I grieve not;—for the azure[2] sky
With all its host of stars that brightly shine,
The green-robed earth with all her flow’rs divine,
The verdant vales and every mountain high,
5
Those beauteous meads that now do glittering lie
Clad in bright sun-shine,—all, oh! all are mine!
And much there is on which my ear and eye
Can feast luxurious!—why should I repine?
The furious Gale that howls and fiercely blows,
10
The gentler Breeze that sings with tranquil glee,
The silver Rill that gayly warbling flows,
And e’en the dark and ever-lasting Sea,
All, all these bring oblivion for my woes,
And all these have transcendent [3] charms for me!

  1. The distance between Bengal and Turkey is roughly 5,000 km, and between Bengal and Persia it is 3,000 km. These places are as foreign to Dutt as they are to Byron, whose work he is imitating. For more on Byron's "Eastern Tales," read Susan Oliver's "Byron’s Eastern Tales: Eastern Themes and Contexts." ↵
  2. Azure refers both to the gemstone and the bright blue colour. ↵
  3. Here, Dutt marks himself as participating in the tropes of Romantic poets, such as John Keats' focus on transcendence in such poems as "Ode to A Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn." For more on Keats and transcendence, see Poetry Foundation's article on Keats. ↵

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Sonnets (c. 1830/40) Copyright © by Michael Madhusdan Dutt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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