The Hindoo Girl’s Song
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
Float on—float on—my haunted bark,
Above the midnight tide;
Bear softly o'er the waters dark
The hopes that with thee glide.
Float on—float on—thy freight is flowers,
And every flower reveals
The dreaming of my lonely hours,
The hope my spirit feels.
Float on—float on—thy shining lamp,
The light of love, is there;
If lost beneath the waters damp,
That love must then despair.
Float on—beneath the moonlight float
The sacred billows o'er:
Ah, some kind spirit guards my boat,
For it has gained the shore.
This song alludes to a well-known superstition among the young Hindoo girls. They make a little boat out of a cocoa-nut shell, place a small lamp and flowers within this tiny ark of the heart, and launch it upon the Ganges. If it float out of sight with its lamp still burning, the omen is prosperous; if it sinks, the love of which it questions, is ill-fated.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified by Madeleine Quinn on February 17, 2020
- 46 sec read
- 170 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGX X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 898 |
Words | 153 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
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"The Hindoo Girl’s Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/25715/the-hindoo-girl’s-song>.
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