Sandhya: Or, Songs of Twilight

Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight (1917) is a poetry collection by Dhan Gopal Mukerji. Published while Mukerji was a young student in California, Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight is the second collection of poems from the first Indian writer to gain a popular audience in the United States. Lyrical and romantic, Mukerji’s poems capture his commitment to beauty while maintaining his sense of isolation and exile as a young man living far from home. In “Symbolism,” the collection’s opening poem, Mukerji is a poet in search of a song: “Tongueless the bell! / Lute without a song! / It is not night / It is God’s dawn, / Silence its unending song.” Desperate for the beauty and truth of the world outside “pain’s window,” he finds “Faith’s candle lit,” lighting “Eternity’s scroll” for the soul to read at last. Lyrically gifted and profoundly mysterious, Mukerji presents his creative process as a struggle with human emotions. Later, he grounds his feeling in the country he left behind: “O, frail, faint call which I seek to echo! / O, breath of love laden with the aroma of my soul! / Why seek I ever without, O guest at my door?” In “After a Bengali Song,” he provides a powerful image of isolation and longing from a heart that remains “without” for as long as his exile continues. Although he never returned to his native country, Mukerji left an inspiring legacy through his literary achievement and unwavering commitment to Indian independence.

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