Derozio’s poem starts off dead, with no one to touch its strings. The harp who once played beautiful sounds is no longer alive as it withers away.
“Neglected, mute, and desolate art thou,
Like ruined monument on desert plain”
I can’t help but draw a comparison to Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”;
“Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
In Shelley’s it tells Ramses II whose empire crumbled to sands, and is long forgotten about. Bleak, how “The Harp of India” starts. The Harp takes on personification, “her fatal chain”. More importantly it becomes a symbol, a symbol of Indian culture, and its death due to Western ‘Influence’.
Fortunately, unlike Ramses II, there is hope, the writer hopes that “the mortal” will be revived again. There is hope for the Harp to be played once more, for India to reconnect with her roots, and play songs of cultural importance. The Harp signifies a heritage, a cultural background. Which is why the Irish hold so dear to it, it’s part of their rich history. A beautiful instrument, nothing quite sounds like it. Its a call to arms to acknowledge Indian art, and to not forget it.
English Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century (1660-1837) Gone Global 
This post examines the personification of the harp. This is interesting as most posts look at the metaphor, and it’s nice to look at the harp in a different light. I think this could have been improved if they went a little more in depth about the cultural background.
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