Harvest Hymn

A hymn is a song of praise, a kind of prayer you sing. This is a harvest hymn, sung in the countryside at a harvest festival. Sarojini Naidu wrote it for four groups of voices.

1. Men's Voices praise Surya (the Sun): 'Lord of the lotus, lord of the harvest, bright and munificent (very generous) lord of the morn!' They offer songs and garlands, 'the gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit', and praise him 'with cymbal and flute'.

2. Men's Voices praise Varuna (god of rain and water): 'Lord of the rainbow… great and beneficent (doing good) lord of the main!' It was his mercy that cared for the furrows and helped the grain grow. They bring 'the wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe', with 'cymbal and pipe'.

3. Women's Voices praise Prithvi (the Earth): 'Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the harvest, sweet and omnipotent (all-powerful) mother, O Earth!' 'Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us.' With 'cymbal and drum'.

Notice: the sun and rain are lords, but the earth is a queen and a mother, and it is the women who sing to her.

4. All Voices together praise Brahma: 'Lord of the Universe, Lord of our being, Father eternal, ineffable (too great for words) Om! Thou art the Seed and the Scythe of our harvests, Thou art our Hands and our Heart and our Home.' With 'cymbal and prayer'.

The shape of the poem: sun, rain, earth (the three things a harvest needs), and then the god of everything together.

Each stanza brings a different gift: songs, thanks, love, and finally 'our lives and our labours'.

What each god stands for:

• Surya: light, energy and life; warmth and plenty;
• Varuna: mercy and nourishment through rain, vital for farming;
• Prithvi: fertile land, motherhood, care: the source of all life.

In the last stanza, 'Hands', 'Heart' and 'Home' have capital letters, because God is said to live in them.

The tone is respectful and celebratory: thanking, not begging.