Introduction :
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, popularly known as
Derozio, may be regarded as the first Indian English poet. This young poet
lived a very brief life, only 22 years, but he achieved a very brilliant
career. Derozio was a teacher of Hindu College which is now known as the
Presidency College.India's first intellectual club, the 'Academic
Association', was founded by Derozio. In his very brief poetic career Derozio
published two volumes of poetry one of which is entitled as "Poems"
(1827). "To the pupils of the Hindu college" is a sonnet and it
occurs in the volume "Poems". Derozio’s heart-felt and
impassioned expression regarding his
students of Hindu College is quite explicit in this sonnet.
Summary of the poem :
Line 1 to 6
Expanding like petals of young flowers
I watch the gentle opening of your minds.
And the sweet loosening of the spell that binds,
Your intellectual energies and powers,
That stretch (like young birds in soft summer
hours)
Their wings, to try their strength,
Summary :
Derozio ,the teacher of the Hindu College, a
keen observer , has not missed to watch the gentle efflorescence of the minds
of his students. He has compared such opening with the expanding of the petals
of young flowers. The students are naturally endowed with strength of intellect and powers of mind
which are bound and influenced by the orthodoxy, traditionalism and
conservative values, but the poet watches that such spell or the influence of
orthodoxy and conservativeness has been slackened gradually. As the young birds,
releasing themselves from the spell of the cold Winter, spread
out their wings in summer time and try their strength by flying up in
the sky, the young pupils are also expanded mentally, emotionally and intellectually
with compact positive energy. The students of this age try to prove their inner
qualities, their ethics and the values as human beings.
Line 6 to 10
O, how the winds
Of circumstances and freshening April showers
Of early knowledge and unnumbered kinds
Of new perceptions shed their influence;
And how you worship truth's omnipotence.
Summary : The teacher-poet
has watched that his pupils are not in
mental rest at such age, their minds are always disturbed by the winds of different changes. Their early
knowledge that they have acquired makes their minds fresh as the shower of April freshens every
earthly things and beings. Not only
that, numberless new and different kinds of perceptions peep into their minds
and exerts their irresistible influence which makes the students restless. Whatever
it may be, the pupils adhere to the way of truth, they worship the truth
because they know the omnipotence of the truth. No superstition, no irrational
idea and belief, can make their intellect and mind blur and take away from truth.
Line 11 to 14
What joyance rains upon me, when l see
Fame in the mirror of futurity,
Weaving the chaplets you have yet to gain,
Ah then, l feel I have not lived in vain.
Summary : In the mirror of time (futurity) the poet visualizes the fame of his students. He can clearly see in imagination that the fame of his pupils is just weaving the chaplet which they must gain in near future. Joy comes upon the poet like thick rain. Such condition of poet’s mind brings him to a new realm of fulfillment and he thinks that all his endeavours for nurturing the students have become useful and successful. It takes him to the conclusion that he has not lived in vain and his mission as the architect of the student and the nation is successful beyond doubt.
Images in the poem :
In the first stanza we find two fine images : one is the 'petals of flower' image and the other is the 'wings of bird' image. In the lap of nature we witness the gentle opening of petals of the young flowers.The tight structured buds loose in a slow degree and expand into full-bloomed structure - a complete flower ready to offer beauty and fragrance . Similar in the way the tender minds of the students open gently, casting aside the spell of traditionalism and conservatism. Idealism replaces the narrow thinking. Their minds make places for new values and promises. This is the formative moments of future citizens of the motherland.
The 'wings of bird' image is very much appropriate and adhering to the opening of the minds of the students.In natural atmosphere we see the young birds are shrunk in the cold Winter and deter from their normal activities. When the Summer comes those birds, in the soft summer warmth, release themselves from the spell of the Winter and spread their wings, try to fly and prove their strength. Likewise, the students release their intellectual energies from the spell of cold tradition. The new ideas which they acquire through observation serve as the warmth of soft Summer. Now they do not suffer from the lack of knowledge and experience. The pall of wrong ideas which were formed firmly is dispersed and the student step on the new horizon of truth and beauty. As the wings help a bird to fly from the low ground and hover in the fresh air, the knowledge supports a student to fly to the authentic ideal atmosphere, far from the so-called and age-old values.
Poet's Feeling : The poem "To the pupils of the Hindu college" was composed in such a time when India was on the threshold of cultural renaissance influenced by the new ideas from the West.
