CA 1028

Assignment-2
Cento:
References:
1. Where the Mind is without Fear – by Rabindranath Tagore
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

2. When that I was and a little tiny boy – by W. Shakespeare

“When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,”

3. I Never saw that Land before – by Edward Thomas

“I neither expected anything
Nor yet remembered: but some goal
I touched then; and if I could sing
What would not even whisper my soul
As I went on my journeying,”

4. Wild Geese – by Wild Geese

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves."

5. Indian Love Song – by Sarojini Naidu

“Like the perfume in the petals of a rose,
Hides thy heart within my bosom, O my love!
Like a garland, like a jewel, like a dove
That hangs its nest in the Asoka-tree.”

6. Stopping by Woods – by Robert Frost

“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake….
… The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Cento:
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
Where the mind is without fear of the woods
As I went on my journeying, for a hundred miles
through the lovely, dark country
The wind and the rain have promises to keep,
Like the perfume in the petals of a rose,
thy heart gives his harness!
I neither expected anything
Nor yet remembered the Asoka-tree I love,
Where, like a garland, hangs the “soft animal”!
My soul, like a jewel, hides within my bosom
Then my Father let my heaven of love awake,
With hey and a body shake,
To ask if there is some mistake!

- By:
K. Srinivas Kalyan
ME18BTECH11051

Explanation:
The goal of this cento poem is to portray the journey of a boy in a dark forest
in an interesting way. The poem is made from 6 different prominent poems
written by prominent poets. The poem describes the experiences of the boy
in a countryside forest with many similes and ends with a twist that the boy
is all dreaming during the whole time. Tried to end the cento with rhyming
lines. Line by line explanation is as follows:

A brave boy goes to lovely dark forest. It is raining with breezy winds in the
forest. Like rose petals produce the perfume, the boy’s heart harness the
pleasure until he finds his favourite Asoka tree, where a soft animal (a
Snake) is hanging like a garland. Seeing this, his soul hides with fear like a
jewel hides inside a shell. The irony here is, the boy thinks he is without fear
of woods but actually he is. Then his father shakes him to awake him and
find if there is any problem. Then the boy realises that it his dream!

P.S: All the reference poems are taken from allpoetry.com