Get summaries, questions, answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDFs, and guides for the poem The Soul’s Prayer: MBOSE Class 12 Alternative English textbook Imprints, by Sarojini Naidu, which is part of the syllabus for students studying under the board. These solutions, however, should only be treated as references and can be modified/changed.
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Summary
In Sarojini Naidu’s poem The Soul’s Prayer, the poet adopts the voice of a young child speaking to God, expressing a deep desire to understand the true nature of life and death. The child, in her innocent pride, asks for complete knowledge and experience, wishing to feel every joy and sorrow that existence can offer. This request shows a strong, insatiable soul that craves not just happiness but also the depths of pain, hoping to learn the “intricate lore of love and life” and the mysterious knowledge of the grave.
God responds solemnly, agreeing to fulfill her prayer. He promises that her soul will experience extreme joys, fame, and love but will also undergo great suffering and despair. Through these experiences, pain is described as a purifying force, like fire that cleanses impurities, refining the soul’s desires and teaching it humility. Joy and pain are both necessary, God implies, to fully understand life’s meaning.
As the poem progresses, it is revealed that the poet’s soul, after enduring all these experiences, will eventually seek peace. In this moment of release, God promises that He will grant the soul a profound understanding, representing peace as the ultimate goal. In the last lines, God compares life to a prism through which His light, or wisdom, shines, producing varied experiences, while death is portrayed as the shadow cast by God’s face. This metaphor suggests that life’s different experiences come from God’s wisdom, and death, though often feared, is merely an extension of God’s presence and mystery. Through the poem, Naidu explores themes of spiritual growth, suffering, and the divine cycle of life and death.
Video tutorial
Line-by-line explanation
In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
The speaker, looking back to a time of youthful confidence and innocence, addresses a divine figure (God) with a sense of pride in her understanding and certainty.
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
She acknowledges that God created her, giving her life through His own essence, suggesting a deep connection between the Creator and herself.
Speak, Master, and reveal to me / Thine inmost laws of life and death.
The speaker requests that God share with her the profound truths and mysteries about existence and mortality, desiring to understand life and death fully.
‘Give me to drink each joy and pain / Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
She asks to experience all the joys and sorrows that God, with His timeless power, has in store for her, wanting to understand the full spectrum of human emotions.
For my insatiate soul would drain / Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.
Her soul is described as “insatiate,” meaning it has an endless thirst, craving to experience everything life offers—the extremes of bitterness and sweetness—indicating a deep curiosity and desire for knowledge.
‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife, / Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
She boldly asks for every experience, both happy and painful, as gifts or challenges from God, showing her willingness to endure all that life has to offer.
The intricate lore of love and life / And mystic knowledge of the grave.”
The speaker desires to learn the complexities of love and life and to gain knowledge of death’s mysteries, suggesting a fascination with both the joys of existence and the secrets of mortality.
Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
Here, the speaker recalls that God responded in a serious, quiet tone, indicating the gravity of the request she made.
‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer, / And thy unconquered soul shall know / All passionate rapture and despair.
God agrees to grant her prayer, telling her that her soul will experience both the highest joys and deepest sorrows, emphasizing that her soul is strong and unbroken (unconquered).
‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame, / And love shall burn thee like a fire,
God promises that she will experience intense joy and fame but warns that love will be an intense, consuming force, likened to a fire that can both warm and hurt.
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame, / To purge the dross from thy desire.
He explains that pain will act as a purifying force, like a flame that removes impurities, refining her desires by teaching her about loss and resilience.
‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn / To seek from its blind prayer release,
Through these experiences, her spirit, now refined and humbled (chastened), will eventually long to be freed from the initial, naive wish for all-encompassing experiences.
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn / The simple secret of My peace.
When her spirit is exhausted from life’s trials, she will seek forgiveness and ask to learn the ultimate, tranquil truth of God’s peace, which is a calm understanding beyond earthly experiences.
‘I, bending from My sevenfold height, / Will teach thee of My quickening grace.
God assures her that He will reveal His life-giving (quickening) grace to her, reaching down from His high and divine realm to offer wisdom and understanding.
Life is a prism of My light, / And Death the shadow of My face.’
God concludes with a powerful metaphor, describing life as a prism that reflects the divine light in many forms, symbolizing the diverse experiences of life. Death, on the other hand, is simply the shadow of God’s presence—a mystery that hints at, rather than reveals, His true nature.
Textbook solutions
Answer these questions briefly
Stanza 1
1. Who is the poet speaking to?
Answer: The poet is speaking to the Lord.
2. What is she asking Him?
Answer: She is asking Him to reveal His inmost laws of life and death.
3. What does the expression ‘In childhood’s pride’ suggest?
Answer: It suggests a sense of innocence and a confident eagerness to understand profound mysteries.
Stanza 2
1. What is the soul craving for?
Answer: The soul is craving for every joy and pain that can be measured out by the Lord.
2. Explain the expression of ‘insatiate soul’.
Answer: It refers to a soul that is never satisfied, desiring to experience life’s extremes fully.
Stanza 3
1. The poet continues to ask the Lord for many things. What are they?
Answer: She asks for every bliss and pang of strife, all gifts or griefs she craves, and for knowledge of love, life, and death.
2. Explain the poet’s craving for the ‘mystic knowledge of the grave’.
Answer: It indicates her desire to understand the mysteries of life and death, including what lies beyond death.
Stanza 4
1. Who is speaking in this stanza?
Answer: The Lord is speaking in this stanza.
2. What is the poet promised?
Answer: The poet is promised that her soul shall know all passionate rapture and despair.
Stanza 5
1. What other promises does the Lord make?
Answer: The Lord promises that she shall experience joy, fame, love, and pain.
2. How will the poet benefit from pain?
Answer: Pain will cleanse her like a flame, purging the impurities from her desires.
Stanza 6
1. What will happen to the poet’s spirit?
Answer: The poet’s spirit will yearn for release from its blind prayers.
2. How will the Lord reward the poet?
Answer: The Lord will reveal to her the simple secret of His peace.
Stanza 7
1. Why do you think this stanza has only two lines?
Answer: It emphasizes the final revelation and the simplicity of the ultimate truth.
2. What do these lines mean?
Answer: They mean that life is a reflection of God’s light, and death is merely a shadow of His face.
Answer these questions in detail.
1. Does the poet ask only for the good things of life?
Answer: No, the poet does not ask only for the good things of life. She requests both joys and pains, desiring to experience the full extent of life, including “Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.”
2. Why do you think she also asks for sorrow?
Answer: She asks for sorrow because she wishes to experience life in its entirety, believing that understanding both joy and pain will lead to a deeper understanding of existence. Her “insatiate soul” craves all experiences, desiring not only bliss but also the pangs of strife.
3. Explain the phrase ‘unconquered soul’.
Answer: The phrase “unconquered soul” implies a spirit that remains strong and unbroken despite the hardships and trials it endures. It suggests resilience and a refusal to be subdued by life’s sufferings.
4. What secret will the Lord share with the poet?
Answer: The Lord will share with the poet “the simple secret of My peace,” indicating that after experiencing both extremes of joy and despair, she will come to understand divine peace.
5. Where will she learn of this secret?
Answer: She will learn this secret from the Lord, who will “teach thee of My quickening grace.” This teaching comes after her soul has been “chastened” and is ready to “sue to learn” this wisdom from the divine.
6. Critically analyse the poem The Soul’s Prayer.
Answer: “The Soul’s Prayer” by Sarojini Naidu explores the yearning of the soul for knowledge and experience beyond the superficial. The poet, addressing the Lord, requests the full range of life’s experiences, both joyful and painful, in her quest for deeper understanding. The poem reveals a profound spirituality, as the poet’s desire to experience both joy and suffering reflects her commitment to a life of growth and depth. The Lord’s response promises her these experiences, portraying life as a prism of light and death as its shadow, suggesting that enlightenment and peace lie beyond worldly experiences. This spiritual journey ultimately leads to divine wisdom and peace, highlighting the transformative power of both joy and suffering. The poem’s rich use of imagery, metaphors, and alliterations enhances its expression of the poet’s quest for knowledge and divine understanding.
Appreciating form
1. The poem is filled with rich imagery. Example: ‘chastened spirit’ describes the spirit that has been purified after going through much pain and suffering. Point out one more example from the poem.
Answer: One more example of rich imagery in the poem is “love shall burn thee like a fire,” which suggests the intense and consuming nature of love.
2. Metaphor: ‘Life is a prism of My light.’ Life is compared to a prism through which many colours (joys and sorrows of life) radiate and God’s light (wisdom) is seen. Explain the metaphor in ‘And Death the shadow of My face’.
Answer: The metaphor “And Death the shadow of My face” implies that death is an inseparable, yet secondary, aspect of divine presence, like a shadow is to an object, suggesting that death is a reflection or manifestation of God’s existence, hinting at its inevitability and connection to life.
3. Alliteration: The use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in a sentence, especially in a poem is called alliteration. Examples: ‘Gift of grief ‘and ‘Love of lore and life.’ Pick out two other examples of alliteration from the poem.
Answer: Two other examples of alliteration in the poem are “passionate rapture” and “spent and pardoned.”
Beyond the text
1. Life is not a bed of roses. Elaborate on this expression using ideas from the poem.
Answer: In The Soul’s Prayer, the poet Sarojini Naidu explores the duality of joy and suffering as essential elements of life. The speaker requests from the Lord both joy and pain, the “utmost bitter, utmost sweet,” to fully experience existence. This craving reveals that life comprises a spectrum of experiences, both blissful and painful, signifying that life is indeed not a bed of roses but rather a blend of happiness and sorrow that molds the soul.
2. Epiphany is the realisation or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something or someone. It can take the form of an inspired understanding or a profound insight or awareness. Can the concluding couplet of the poem be described as an epiphany? Explain.
Answer: Yes, the concluding couplet of the poem, “Life is a prism of My light, And Death the shadow of My face,” can indeed be described as an epiphany. This moment reflects the poet’s ultimate understanding of life and death as expressions of divine presence. Life, symbolized as a prism, refracts God’s light into a variety of experiences, while death is understood as merely a shadow, not an end, suggesting a deep insight into the transient and interconnected nature of existence and eternity.
Extras
Additional questions and answers
1. Who is the poet addressing in “The Soul’s Prayer”?
Answer: The poet is addressing the Lord.
13. Can the concluding couplet of “The Soul’s Prayer” be considered an epiphany? Explain.
Answer: Yes, the concluding couplet can be considered an epiphany. In these lines, the poet gains a profound realization that life and death are both reflections of God’s presence. Life shows His light, while death is the shadow, symbolizing the continuity and unity of existence under God’s design. This brings the poet peace, as she understands that both are parts of a divine order.
Additional fill in the blanks
1. In childhood’s pride I said to Thee: ‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy ______?’ (Breath/Love)
Answer: Breath
8. According to the Lord, death is the shadow of His ______. (Face/Soul)
Answer: Face
Additional true and false
1. The poet is speaking to the Lord in the poem.
Answer: True
10. The concluding couplet of the poem can be seen as a moment of epiphany.
Answer: True
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