Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu were two women poets who appeared in the later half of the

19th century and they can be referred to as two exotic plants who brought in new colour and a
strange beauty to Indian English. Toru Dutt was pale and fragile, but stately, graceful and
delicate. Sarojini Naidu was tiny, bright, sweet and fragrant. "One could think of Toru Dutt as
the skylark, singing loud and clear, soaring high into the sky, like a star of heaven in the broad
daylight. The other was the Nightingale, more familiar and melodious, tiny but powerful. One
was the 'blithe spirit', with a strain of sadness, 'the unbodied joy whose race is just begun'. The
other was the happy, light-winged dryad of the trees."1

From the above mentioned chapters we drive home the fact that both the poets Toru Dutt
and Sarojini Naidu were prominent figures in the history of Indo Anglian poetry. Both of them
took an alien medium for the expression of their essentially native genius and have painted a
very good picture of India and presented it before the western world. Toru Dutt did this by
writing about the legendary past of India, by borrowing facts and stories from various myths she
wrote poems such as Savitri, Lakshman, Jogadhya Uma, The Royal Ascetic and the Hind,
Buttoo, Dhruva, Sindhu, "Sita" and "Prahlad". Besides these she also wrote seven non-
mythological pieces. Even though she was influenced by the western culture to some extent, her
collection Ancient Ballads bring out the Indian poet in her. Many passages in her Ancient Ballads
and Legends of Hindustan bear the unmistakable stamp of Vedanta and are the best expositions
of the Hindu view of life. She did a brilliant work in recreating the legendary figures of the past
with the help of her superb narrative and descriptive power. In the poem Lakshman, Lakshman's
character is portrayed in a graphical manner giving him a life like quality and charm:

Swift in decision, prompt in deed,

Brave unto rashness, can this be,

The man to who all looked at need?

Is it my brother that I set.2

Sarojini Naidu presented India by writing about the Indian philosophy and mysticism and
the multitudinous panorama of Indian life in the poems through her lyrical excellence and
mellow sweetness. She writes about the folk of India in her poems- "Palanquin Bearers",

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"Wandering Singers", "Indian Weavers", "Corn Grinders", "Village-Song", "Indian Love Song",
"Village Songs", "In a Latticed Balcony", "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad". She even writes about
Indian customs and traditions in poems like "Kali the Mother", "Vasant Panchami", "The Pardah
Nashin", "The Prayer of Islam", "The Imam Bara", "The Call to Evening Prayer". She also
written poems dedicated to the patriots of India- "The Lotus" to M.K. Gandhi, "Gokhale". Her
twelve-line poem on ‘Suttee’ throws a spiritual glamour over a rite hitherto confessedly
incomprehensible to the western mind:

Rent us in twain who are but one

Shall the flesh survive when the soul is gone?3

Both of them were accomplished Indian women poets who did the significant task of
wedding the rich vocabulary of English poetry to purely oriental themes. Both the poets were
romantic at heart and wrote love poems which were based on the ideal concept of love; true love
as defined by them is the complete identification of two ardent souls and unconditional self
surrender is its corner stone. Toru Dutt writes about the ideal and spiritual love which is
borrowed from India's history of love tradition. Unlike her, Naidu mainly focused on the idea of
love among the folks of India. While doing so she has given women a higher status, as someone
who had the ability to love and care beyond limits. In her poems women are shown as a sacred
beloved who are ready to surrender before their lovers which can be seen in "If You Call Me":

If you call me, I will come,

Swifter o my love than a trembling forest deer or a panting dove (Paranjape, 172-173)

Her poems are full of ornamental verbiage which we do not find in Toru Dutt.

Nature was another important aspect in their poetry. If we see Naidu's poem then we can
tell that nature elements occupied a great space in her poems. Dutt mostly uses nature as a
backdrop to bring out the human drama of the sufferings. She has a sharp power of observation
and sensitiveness to colour.

The flower lotus seems to be important and significant to both of them. In Indian tradition
the lotus is considered to be a flower of symbol of grace, power and wisdom and also rich in

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mysticism. Both Naidu and Dutt has written poems on this flower taking into concern these
aspects. But apart from the names both the poems are different thematically. In "The Lotus", by
Toru Dutt, the flower attains a sublime position and is given the status of the queen of flowers
while "The Lotus" by Sarojini Naidu is of a different type altogether. It is an invocation,
dedicated to M. K. Gandhi. In this poem the lotus also becomes a symbol of mother India whose
freedom and integrity are threatened by the armed hordes of foreign invaders wailing to suck her
precious juice like the hungry wild bees.

They also differed in their observations of nature. If we compare their description of trees
in the poems "Baugmaree" and "Champak Blossoms", we can see that they have a different
approach to nature. This is how Dutt describes a beautiful natural scene in her sonnet-
"Baugmaree"

But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges

Of bamboos to the eastward when the moon

Looks through their gaps, and the white lotus changes

Into a cup of silver. One might swoon

Drunken with beauty of them or gaze and gaze

On a primeval Eden, in amaze. (Ancient Ballads, 135)

And this is how Naidu writes in her "Champak Blossoms":

Amber petals, ivory petals.

Petals of carven jade,

Charming with your ambrosial sweetness

Forest and field and glade,

Foredoomed in your hour of transient glory

To shrivel and shrink and fade! (Paranjape, 141)

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 It is clear that Naidu filled up the gap of her natural description with plenty of words and
phrases, whereas Dutt became profuse and luscious in revealing the beauties of Nature.

Naidu and Dutt made intellectual development in their poetry since their teen years.
Naidu began writing from the age of about eleven and Dutt attained a commendable mastery of
English and French by the age of fifteen.

Dutt and Naidu used poetry as a non-violent instrument of nationalism during the Indian
freedom movement. They have raised voices against the social and cultural conventions that
often act as a barrier for many. They came out of their homes as they believed that women too,
like men need to explore their collective consciousness and share experience in order to
transcend the fragmentation and isolation of their lives. They have proved the general Victorian
belief that women are meant for the kitchen or the fireplace to be wrong. Toru Dutt was the first
Indian women poet to write in English and her work depicts archetypes of Indian womanhood
such as Sita and Savitri, showing women in suffering.

Sir Edmund Gosse supported both these writers and wrote an introduction to both of
them. About Toru Dutt he wrote: "It is difficult to exaggerate when we try to estimate what we
have lost in the premature death of Toru Dutt. Literature has no honours which need have been
beyond the grasp of a girl who at the age of twenty one, and in languages separated from her own
by so deep a chasm, had produced so much of lasting worth... When the history of literature of
our country comes to be written, there is sure to be a page in it to this fragile, exotic blossom of
song" ("Introductory Memoirs", Ancient Ballads). And about Sarojini Naidu he remarked: "Mrs.
Naidu is, I believe, acknowledged to be the most accomplished living poet of India- at least, of
those who write in English, since what lyric wonders the native languages of that country may be
producing I am not competent to say. But I do not think that any one questions the supreme place
she holds among those Indians who choose to write in our tongue. Indeed, I am not disinclined to
believe that she is the most brilliant, the most original, as well as the most correct, of all the
natives of Hindustan who have written in English."4.

They wrote in a traditional style. Dutt chose for herself a simple, translucent style, while
Naidu picked up for her use, the style of "jewelled phrases". We can compare these two passages
to prove the point:

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The following lines are taken from Dutt's poem Savitri:

Once, and once only, have I given

My heart and faith - 'its past recall;

With conscience none have ever striven.

And none may strive, without a fall. (Ancient Ballads, 11)

And in Naidu we have the following lines taken from her poem "Guerdon":

To field and forest

The gifts of the spring

To hawk and to heron

The pride of their wing;

Her grace to the panther,

Her tints to the dove...

For me, O my Master,

The rapture of Love! (Paranjape, 152)

If we look into the imagery used by both of them then Naidu surely out does the other.
Her poems included an abundant amount of striking images and similes. Even though Dutt too
employed images, it was less significant than hers. But if we look into the poems in search of
quality then Toru Dutt seems more matured and natural than Naidu. Naidu mostly uses girlish
and repetitive themes. Naidu, after writing her third book decided to give up her passion for
poetry, she thus parted ways with the Muse and plunged headlong into political activities in
India. But unlike her, Dutt remained faithful to her Muse throughout her lifetime. Her fragile
physical circumstances did not come in the way of her literary endeavours. This was a great
distinction between them.

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 Naidu wrote more poems as compared to Dutt but if we look into it thematically, than
Dutt's poetry has a wider range than Naidu. Naidu worked flawlessly within her limited range.
She did not propound or uphold any particular theory, creed or philosophy. She was moved by
the senses and sounds around her which she turned into lovely lyrics. But Dutt managed to delve
into a variety of themes. She could easily move among the best pieces of French poetry as among
the inexhaustible treasures of Sanskrit literature and the moralising tales and myths of Hindustan.

She has a sense of imagination which was best suited for short lyrics and thus she has not
attempted longer ones. But Dutt was capable of long, sustained fights of imagination and
composed long poems like Savitri, Lakshman and Jogadhya Uma.

While writing poetry Dutt maintained a distance, she wrote objectively except in her
miscellaneous poems where she becomes somewhat personal. But Naidu always maintained a
personal touch in her poems.

Thus we can conclude by saying that both the writers have certain plus and minus points
with them. It would be hazardous to glorify one at the cost of the other. In matters of artistry,
weaving the tender fabrics of dream and fantasy, of finished form and touching rhythm, of
placing together a series of coherent images and similes, Naidu is decidedly the better one. But in
portraying living human characters with subtle motives and mysterious nature, in having the
range and depth of poetry, and even in displaying the originality of approach and the variety of
subject-matter, Dutt relegates Naidu to the background.

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 REFERENCES

1. Murali, N, Natanam, G. "Sarojini Naidu as a Poet" in Language In India Strength for Today
and Bright Hope for Tomorrow. Volume 8. 11 Nov, 2008. 490. Web. Thurs 30 April 2015.

2. Dutt, Toru. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. Project Gutenburg, October 29, 2007.
46. < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23245/23245-h/23245-h.htm>Web. Tue. 28 April 2015.

3. Paranjape, Makarand R. Sarojini Naidu: Selected Poetry and Prose. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Rupa
Publications India Pvt. Ltd. 2012. 112. Print.

4. Naidu, Sarojini. The Bird of Time; Songs of Life, Death & the Spring. Delhi: Nabu Press.
2010. 1-2. Print.

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