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A Sea of Foliage
Toru Dutt
About Toru Dutt
Toru Dutt (1856-1877), was an Indian poet who has written both descriptive and narrative poetry. Her poems have rich descriptions of nature. Much of her short life was spent in two spacious garden-homes in West Bengal. These gardens shaped her keen sense of observation and her response to colour.
A sea of foliage girds our garden round,
But not a sea of dull unvaried green,
Sharp contrasts of all colours here are seen;
The light-green graceful tamarinds abound
Amid the mango clumps of green profound,
And palms arise, like pillars grey, between;
And o'er the quiet pools the seemuls lean,
Red-red, and starling like a trumpet`s sound.
But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges
Of bamboos to the eastward, when the moon
Looks through their gaps,and the white lotus changes
Into a cup of silver. One might swoon
Drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze
On a primevel Eden, in amaze.
Available Answers
- 1.
Whose garden do you think the speaker is describing? How can you tell?
- 2.
‘A sea of foliage… but not a sea of dull unvaried green.’ What does the speaker mean by these lines?
- 3.
How do the tamarind leaves differ from the mango leaves?
- 4.
Describe the scene that the speaker considers the loveliest in the garden.