Independence Day 2024: Honour the courage, resilience, and determination of those who fought for India’s freedom through these poems.
Independence Day is celebrated on August 15. It is a poignant reminder of the sacrifices and struggles that led to India’s freedom. It’s a day to honour the courage, resilience, and determination of those who fought for our nation’s independence. Poetry, with its moving power, has always been a medium to express the deepest emotions, and on this special day, poems on freedom hold a significant place in our hearts. They capture the essence of patriotism, the value of liberty, and the spirit of unity that defines India. These poems serve not only as a tribute to our past but also as an inspiration for the future, reminding us of the precious gift of freedom and our responsibility to uphold it.
As we celebrate Independence Day, let these poems reignite our love for the nation:
A Nation’s Pride By Rabindranath Tagore
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Mother, I bow to thee! By Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
My India By P Yogananda Tagore
Not where the musk of happiness blows,
Not where darkness and fears never tread;
Not in the homes of perpetual smiles,
Nor in the heaven of a land of prosperity Would I be born If I must put on mortal garb once more.
The Gift of India By Sarojini Naidu
Is there aught you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.
Democracy by Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.