Summary of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio's sonnet " The Harp of India "

               The Harp of India

        Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was the pioneer of the Young Bengal Movement and was a son of Portuguese father and Indian mother. From is father's side, he inherited rationality and  liberty of thoughts, and from his mother's side ,he received the profound love for the country. In his sonnet,  'The Harp of India ' he expresses profound love for India.

          The sonnet opens with a rhetorical question to the harp hanging on the withered branch and asks the reason of sterility or unproductive condition of the harp. The harp has become unproductive and unstrung just like the withered branch. The poet becomes nostalgic as well as mournful because the sweet tunes once mesmerized the listeners but now becomes dead, silent and no more produces the sweet melodies . Harp is erected like a ' neglected, mute and desolate ' cenotaph on a deserted, erid land. The immortal hands which played the harp and sang the symphony are most valuable and worthy than what he does. The poet as a visionary hopes to regain and revive the lost glory of undivided India before the colonization. Before the colonization,  Indian poetry brought forth many immortal classic but in nineteenth century,  the literature lacks those immortal qualities. 

The harp is the symbol of the poets under the British rule who are suffering culturally being colonized. He praises flawlessly for the Indian classical poets. Those poets are no more but their immortal works are still honoured and highly esteemed : " Of flowers still blooming on the minstrel's grave ". Derozio is of the opinion that by reviving the glory of the ancient literary works, India's lost hoary cultural heritage can be restored.

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