Love and Death By Sarojini Naidu

I dreamed my love had set thy spirit free,
Enfranchised thee from Fate's o'ermastering power,
And girt thy being with a scatheless dower
Of rich and joyous immortality;
Of Love, I dreamed my soul had ransomed thee,
In thy lone, dread, incalculable hour
From those pale hands at which all mortals cower,
And conquered Death by Love, like Savitri.
When I awoke, alas, my love was vain
E'en to annul one throe of destined pain,
Or by one heart-beat to prolong thy breath;
O Love, alas, that love could not assuage
The burden of thy human heritage,
Or save thee from the swift decrees of Death.

This poem is a sonnet from “The Bird of the time” collection. 

Its in the form of Petrarchan with rhymes scheme abbaabba ccdeed. 

Here the premises of the poem is that there are two lovers one is alive and the other is dead. In the first line we see that the person alive dreamed of her lover to be alive as well. Somehow she thinks she has freed her lover from clutches of death and have bought him to life yet again fighting with  his fate. She also dreams of bringing him back without harming or damaging him in anyway.

 She is happy that now her lover is immortal because in her dream she dreams of releasing his soul by paying ransom at the right time before anyone could have pulled him back. She feels great for having conquered death by her love like how Savitri brought her husband sathyavan back from death. 

But when she woke up nothing had changed. Her lover was dead and her love was not that powerful enough to bring him back. She was hurt that she could nor rescue her lover from the pain of death nor she could prolong his heat beat even by one breath. Now she thinks her love was not enough for him ,perhaps she didn’t love him enough to save  him from the clutches of death and now she regrets for not loved him from the bottom of her soul. 

The sonnet Love and death contains a kind debate. Its between a certain idea of love which would conquer everything including death but that usually never happens even though a lover loves his/her beloved from heart and soul.

scatheless - without harm or damage

annul  - declare invalid 

throe- agony