Summary of the poem Summer Woods by Sarojini Naidu

Saroji Naidu was born on 13th February 1879. At 13, she passed Madras Matriculation examination. She fell in love with M Govindarajulu Naidu at an early age and she was sent to England in 1895. She studied at Girton College Cambridge. During her years in England, she got familiar with many leading literary figures including Edmund Gosse and Arthur Simon and the first acted as a patron to her. She returned to India in 1898 and married Dr. Naidu. Her life in India was committed to politics, public life and poetry. She was a member of the Congress Party and many Indian leaders influenced her including Gopala Krishna Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi.She became one of the leading freedom fighters. In 1925, she became the first woman president of the Congress and the President of All India Women's Committee and the first woman Governor in UP after independence.

Her first collection of poetry was The Golden Threshold (1905) introduced by Arthur Simon. It was dedicated to “Edmund Gosse who first showed me the way to the golden threshold”. It received high critical appreciation reader support. Her second collection of poetry was The Bird of Time published in 1912 introduced by Arthur Simon. Among her collections, The Broken Wing published in 1917  received wide critical acclaim. Her poetry could not make a breakthrough after 1917,as highly experimental modernist poetry was on the wake.

Sarojini Naidu was a romantic writer. Her poetry expressed the escapist longings of a lonely soul and decadent life of the people. She also fused Indian experiences with English rhythm. Her expertise in putting Indian village life and its delights into English verses are praiseworthy.She is known as the Nightingale of India.

Summer Woods narrates the romantic longings of the protagonist to get away from the drudgery of everyday life. It resembles the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats. The poem begins with the poet's expression of  boredom with the city life and the desire to go to the Woods. Woods are imagined as the opposite of the city- a place where human life is uninterrupted. The poet invites her beloved to come to the woods and enjoy the life among the trees. She paints life in the woods in highly sensuous verses and elaborates the ecstasies the woods offer. The poet tempts the lover to come to the woods to listen to the songs of birds, the fragrance of the jasmine, bath in the river where golden panthers drink etc. She wishes to live with the wildness of the woods with her instincts.

In the last part of the poem, she canonizes her love and equates their love  with that of Radhika and Krishna. She also invokes Indian myths to express the depth of her passion. It is interesting to note that Indian fusion of love and sex is narrated in the poem. Amidst the trees, she invokes the Serpent King and feels immortal in their love.