Summary of by Derozio
“The Orphan Girl” is a heart-touching poem written by Derozio. The poem is about a young girl who has lost her parents. While drawing sympathy for the orphan girl, the poet makes readers think of a society that often gives a deaf ear to the problems faced by the distressed. The poet’s concern is that the girl is too immature to understand the harshness and cruelty that prevails in the world. The poet is in all sympathy for the girl, not only because she is an orphan, but also because of her lack of friends and relatives who can afford to give her food and shelter. In such a situation, it will have to be the subject of harsh treatment for society. The poet’s main concern is social security, which is very much needed to secure the lives of the orphans and the destitute.
Criticizing society, he says that while it deprives her of giving any respite from the pitiable condition that the orphan girl has been subjected to, it will scorn her in the slightest deviation from the path of virtue.
The poet intends to demonstrate, through this poem, how people should think of those people who are helpless, penniless and socially insecure. So, he praises people ‘who shelters an orphan from sorrow and shame!’ (line 26).
This poem by Derozio can also be seen as a reflection of the other side of Indian society in the first half of the 19th century. His message is clear enough to understand that he is seeking reformation in society so that he can learn how to sympathise with the poor and the helpless.
1. What does the poet Henry Louis Vivian Derozio try to say in his poem The Orphan Girl?
The poem, The Orphan Girl, starts with a description of the orphan girl. According to the poet, her (orphan girl) hair was as black as a raven’s wings. Raven means the crown. Her cheeks were as bright as the flower of tulips. Her voice was as soft as the wind or the air in the night, which was quite calm and gentle. Her forehead was as bright as the beams of the moon. Thus the beginning is quite pleasing, but after the fourth line, the poet turns to the dark reality. The girl’s sire (father) went to war and fought bravely, but at the end of the day he lost his life, and he knew that before he died. The poet sighs, this is the reward of a brave man in this world. The phrase depicts the cruelty of the world and how it rewards good and brave people. The death of her father was not born to her mother. Instead of living as a widow, she also died of a heart attack, leaving the young girl without her parents.
The first part begins with an appreciation of the beauty of a young girl and ends with a tragedy. The second part describes the uncertainty of the poet about his future in the world. She has no friends on this cold (without human warmth) and dark (without hope) earth. There’s no one to give her a shelter, a home, and a hearth (warmth). She’s going to have to live alone in this dull and depressed world (the desert here refers to the world). The poet repeats the phrase that she has no friend, and now she should stay away from being good and kind, as the cruel world will scorn, mock, and abuse her. And ultimately, this cruel nature of the world will kill her.
The poet laments that the shame she will suffer will be enough to squeeze blood out of her breasts with the weight of sorrows and guilt, and that the world will be oppressed. The poet then says that it is very cruel to wound the bosom (here symbolises the girl) whose blood comes out of the breasts in an uncontrolled manner because of sorrow and shame. No tear can be as painful as the tears that flow from the eyes of a sad and oppressed woman in the world. And the most blessed and honourable, according to the poet, is the one who would protect an orphan from sorrow and shame! So the poem ends in hope and uncertainty about the future of the orphan girl.
The poem gives an insight into the condition of the woman and the suppression she faced during the poet’s time. A girl whose parents were to die had to live a shameful life and had been physically, mentally and sexually tortured by the people. So the poet reveals the social abuses that are the curses of society.
2.What message Derozio gives in the end?
Ans:- Derozio says the orphan girl would scorn her on her lonely journey. Her shame could have been enough to breathe wretch ha with sorrow and oppressed guilt. It was a cold cruel act to wound the boss of a woman whose blood would flow unbound. When fear comes out of the undesired woes of the erring woman, it’s the brightest. In conclusion, the poet, Derozio, appeals to a man of compassion and compassion. He says that the man who shelters such an orphan girl from sorrow and shame, his honoured name will be blessed forever.
3. Her anguished mother’s suffering heart could not endure a widow’s part. She sunk beneath her soul’s distress, And her infant Parent less ”Discuss.
Ans:- These lines are taken from the poem “The Orphan Girl” by Henry Luis Vivian Derozio. He says that Indian society is in a state of transition. Ram Mohan Roy, who proposed a synthesis between the East and the West. He wants to say that an Indian woman can’t endure the suffering of her husband’s death. She’s very shocked that she doesn’t care about anything on Earth, either. Her sweet girl, too, has no value to her. Leaving everything she dies from the shock of her husband’s death.
