Sarojini Naidu was known as The Nightingale of India for her enchanting poems.
She was born in 1879 to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyaya and Barada Sundari Dev. Sarojini Naidu was a prodigy. She wrote poems in English at the age of thirteen.
Three year later, she was awarded a scholarship from the Nizam of Hyderabad which paid for her studies at King’s College in London. She continued her studies at Girton College in Cambridge. In England, she met Arthur Simon, the Nobel laureate and Edmond Gosse, the writer. Gosse advised Sarojini Naidu to write exclusively on Indian themes and she followed his instructions.
She wrote about the life and the festivals of the people of India. Her first collection of poems was titled ‘The Golden Threshold’ and was published in 1905. Arthur Simon wrote the foreword to these poems. Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other great freedom fighters admired her poetry.
Lyricism, symbolism, imagery and mysticism are features of her poetry. ‘The Bird of Time’, her succeeding collection, was published in 1912 in London by William Heinemann.
Sarojini Naidu was also famous as a freedom fighter. Sarojini Naidu passed away on 2nd March, 1949.