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An Essay On Renown Poet Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore Essay For Students And Children

Rabindranath Tagore is one of India’s most cherished renaissance figures, who has put us on the literary map of the world. He was a poet’s poet and a maker of not only modern Indian literature but also the modern Indian mind. Tagore was myriad-minded and a great poet, short story writer, novelist, dramatist, essayist, painter, and composer of songs. His worldwide acclaim as a social, political, religious and aesthetic thinker, an innovator in education and a champion of the ‘One World’ idea makes him a living presence. Gandhi called him the ‘Great Sentinel’. He was also renowned as Gurudev.

His Early Years

Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 6, 1861, in an affluent joint family at Jorasanko in Calcutta. His father Maharsi Debendranath Tagore was a religious reformer, scholar, and leader of Brahmo Samaj and his mother’s name was Sarada Devi. He was the youngest of thirteen children. He had spent most of his childhood with servants since his mother had passed away when he was very young. His home was the hub of literary and theatrical activities. In 1883, Rabindranath Tagore married Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri. He had two sons and three daughters.

In his childhood, Tagore never liked the school education within the four walls. He liked the outside world; the open sky overhead and the earth under his feet. So, he was educated at home by private tutors who taught him various subjects. English was his least favourite subject. His father guided him with Upanishads.

He extensively read the mystical and Vaishnav poets of India. From his early years, Rabindranath Tagore wrote poems. Some of his poems were published in periodicals when he was very young. He finished a long poem in Maithili style. His first short story in Bengali had the title, ‘Bhikharini’ (The Beggar Woman).

Tagore went to England for higher education but there also, he did not like the traditional system of education. He came back to India after a year. After he came back, he devoted himself completely to writing. Before he turned 18 years old, he had published more than 6000 lines of verse along with prose. He became an active member of the Bengal Literary Academy and frequently contributed to many periodicals. Bengal was swinging from the Renaissance in every field of religion, literature and politics when Rabindranath Tagore made his presence felt in the literary society.

He established a school named Shantiniketan at Bolpur (Birbhum district) in Bengal. In Shantiniketan, the teachers took classes under the trees with open sky overhead and green grass under the feet. The Gurukul pattern was followed in the school. Later, the school became a college and then a famous university under the name of “Visva-Bharati”. Today, students from different parts of the world come here to study.

His Contributions

Rabindranath Tagore wrote not only poems but also short stories, drama, novels and essays. He was awarded the world-famous Nobel prize for Literature for his famous book of poetry called ‘Gitanjali’ in 1913. The British Crown awarded him the Knighthood. However, he returned the award to mark the protest against the inhumane massacre in Jallianwala Bagh. Tagore has 2230 songs in his collection, which he composed and they are known as ‘Rabindra Sangeet’. Till today, the Bengalis sing his composed songs with pride. His famous novels like ‘Gora’ ‘Ghare-Baire’, ‘Noukadubi’, ‘Chokher Bali’ and many have been made into movies, which have won accolades worldwide.

Tagore also took up painting. He introduced a completely new form of art and his paintings were so exceptional that he won himself a very significant place among India’s

famous contemporary artists.

Into Politics

Rabindranath Tagore was writing at a time when the entire country was thrown into the fever of the freedom struggle and he plunged with deep passion into the struggle. He took part in the freedom movements by opening a Swadeshi shop selling only Indian goods and by rejecting foreign goods. He also composed many patriotic songs and articles especially during the painful partition of Bengal in 1905. Those songs inspired the youth of the country. He gave us the National Anthem: “Jana Gana Mana”. He had also composed the National anthem of Bangladesh: “Amar Sonar Bangla”. He also wrote the lyrics of Sri Lanka’s National Anthem.

Tagore died on August 7, 1941, at Calcutta leaving behind a legacy of world-class literature. He is one of the most influential Indian writers and so not only the nation but also the entire intellectual community of the world suffered an irreparable loss. The nation lost a great poet, philosopher, social reformer, mystic and a greater human being.

He was not only a representative of the nation but a wholesome product of Mother Earth, an amalgamation of Indian and modern values. Even though he is not among us, his presence can be felt through his vast works. His birthday is celebrated as Rabindra Jayanti in West Bengal. He will always be remembered as the source of inspiration for noble thoughts and great ideas for humanity.

Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay is one in which a person, place, thing, or any object is explained in detail. It vividly describes the experience of the five senses about the subject. The subject can be anything – a thing, an experience, a situation, or an emotion or feeling. A good descriptive essay has the power to paint a picture through words . It can make the reader experience the subject first-hand in his mind – such is the power of a good descriptive essay. Great writers can describe a thing with such vividity that it becomes a memorable piece of literature and becomes a classic.

Describing a Person

Writing an essay about a person is a kind of descriptive essay. The onus of bringing that person to life through words remains with the writer. We have memorable characters in books that were so well described in the literature that they appear to one like a real person. A good example is Sherlock Holmes, the creation of a doctor who wrote detective fiction while waiting for patients in his clinic.

Hence, anyone can become good at describing a person. In a descriptive essay about a person, one needs to write about his life and death. The important events of his life have to be mentioned. His personality and characteristics that make him unique should be mentioned. With meticulous attention and creativity, a good picture of the subject’s life can be captured.

How to Begin a Descriptive Essay on a Person?

Usually, students are asked to write an essay about a historical figure. In that case, the facts of his life can be collected to form the base of the essay. There should be no fiction or imagined detail, though inferences can be included. Good research is required to write a descriptive essay on an actual person. Sometimes characters of a well-known story are the subject, in that case, the piece of fiction in which the character appears needs to be studied thoroughly. Essays by other people, often as part of character study, can also be read to gather material for the essay. Good research goes a long way into an informative and rich essay.

Body of a Descriptive Essay on a Person

The introduction of an essay about a person needs to mention how he was known as – his profession or quality that made him stand apart. In short essays, only his major life-works or unique quality can be discussed. In longer essays, his physical descriptions (if any) can also be used, along with other details of his life that formed the culture and society of his time.

Conclusion of a Descriptive Essay on a Person

The essay should mention the legacy the subject leaves behind after his death and how it affects future generations. For example, a great cultural and literary figure like Rabindra Nath Tagore would require a deep and heavy conclusion to do justice to his great personality.

FAQs on An Essay On Renown Poet Rabindranath Tagore

1. When was Rabindranath Tagore born and who were his parents?

Rabindranath Tagore was born on 6th May 1861 to a very affluent Brahmin family to Maharsi Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi at Jorasanko in Calcutta. His father was a religious reformer, scholar and leader of Brahmo Samaj.

2. How did Tagore participate in the Movement for Freedom?

Tagore took part in the movement by opening a Swadeshi movement selling only Indian goods and rejecting foreign goods.

3. Mention a few of his Contributions to the World of Literature.

Tagore wrote poems, short stories and novels. He has composed 2230 songs, which are collectively called Rabindra Sangeet. His few novels like Gora, Ghare-Baire, Noukadubi, Chokher Bali and many more have been developed into cinemas. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his poetry book, Gitanjali. He also composed our National Anthem – Jana Gana Mana. He also composed the National Anthem for Bangladesh and wrote the lyrics for the National Anthem for Sri Lanka.

4. What is Shantiniketan?

Shantiniketan is the school that he had established at Bolpur. He followed the Gurukul way of teaching in the open. It has now become a famous University called Vishwa- Bharati where students come to study from different parts of the world.

5. What is the difference between descriptive and narrative essays?

A descriptive essay talks about a noun. It describes a person, place, thing, emotion, or situation. A narrative essay talks about a happening or incident. It tells a story. There are a series of actions that happen in it.

6. How can we use creativity in an essay?

Creativity can be used brilliantly in essays of all kinds. Creativity means originality of thought or expression. It should not be confused with creative writing, which is the writing of fiction, or imagined stories.

7. Why is Rabindranath Tagore the topic of the essay?

Rabindranath Tagore is a legendary historical figure. He is a part of Indian culture; his cultural presence is so immense. Therefore, studying his life would be a learning experience for any student.

8. What is the use of a descriptive essay?

A descriptive essay paints the picture of anything and this kind of writing forms the base of any good book. All great writers have a knack for writing great descriptions, this is what makes their work memorable.

9. Can anecdotes from the life of the subject be included in a descriptive essay?

Generally, anecdotes do not form part of a small essay on a person. However, if the essay is longer and the anecdote affected his life in a major way or formed the crux of his personality development, it would need to be mentioned.

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Rabindranath Tagore

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On his 70th birthday, in an address delivered at the university he founded in 1918, Rabindranath Tagore said: “I have, it is true, engaged myself in a series of activities. But the innermost me is not to be found in any of these. At the end of the journey I am able to see, a little more clearly, the orb of my life. Looking back, the only thing of which I feel certain is that I am a poet ( ami kavi ).”

Although Nobel Prize-winning poet Tagore prioritized poetry, he also made notable contributions to literature as a dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and writer of nonfictional prose, especially essays, criticism, philosophical treatises, journals, memoirs, and letters. In addition, he expressed himself as musician, painter, actor-producer-director, educator, patriot, and social reformer. Referring to the variety and abundance of Tagore’s creative output, Buddhadeva Bose declared in An Acre of Green Grass , “It would be trite to call him versatile; to call him prolific very nearly funny.” Bose added, “The point is not that his writings run into a hundred thousand pages of print, covering every form and aspect of literature, though this matters: he is a source, a waterfall, flowing out in a hundred streams, a hundred rhythms, incessantly.”

A man of prodigious literary and artistic accomplishments, Tagore played a leading role in Indian cultural renaissance and came to be recognized, along with Mohandas Gandhi, as one of the architects of modern India. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote in Discovery of India , “Tagore and Gandhi have undoubtedly been the two outstanding and dominating figures in the first half of the twentieth century. ... [Tagore’s] influence over the mind of India, and especially of successive rising generations has been tremendous. Not Bengali only, the language in which he himself wrote, but all the modern languages of India have been molded partly by his writings. More than any other Indian, he has helped to bring into harmony the ideals of the East and the West, and broadened the bases of Indian nationalism.”

Tagore’s career, extending over a period of more than 60 years, not only chronicled his personal growth and versatility but also reflected the artistic, cultural, and political vicissitudes of India in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Tagore wrote in “My Life,” an essay collected in Lectures and Addresses (1988), that he “was born and brought up in an atmosphere of the confluence of three movements, all of which were revolutionary”: the religious reform movement started by Raja Rammohan Roy, the founder of the Bramo Samaj (Society of Worshipers of the One Supreme Being); the literary revolution pioneered by the Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, who “lifted the dead weight of ponderous forms from our language and with a touch of his magic aroused our literature from her age-long sleep”; and the Indian National Movement, protesting the political and cultural dominance of the West. Members of the Tagore family had actively participated in all the three movements, and Tagore’s own work, in a broad sense, represented the culmination of this three-pronged revolution.

The earliest influences that shaped Tagore’s poetic sensibility were the artistic environment of his home, the beauty of nature, and the saintly character of his father. “Most members of my family,” he recalled in “My Life,” “had some gift—some were artists, some poets, some musicians—and the whole atmosphere of our home was permeated with the spirit of creation.” His early education was administered at home under private tutors, but, Tagore wrote in My Boyhood Days (1940), he did not like “the mills of learning” that “went on grinding from morn till night.” As a boy, he was admitted to four different schools in Calcutta, but he hated all of them and began frequently to play truant. Nature was his favorite school, as he recorded in “My Life”: “I had a deep sense, almost from infancy, of the beauty of nature, an intimate feeling of companionship with the trees and the clouds, and felt in tune with the musical touch of the seasons in the air. ... All these craved expression, and naturally I wanted to give them my own expression.” His father, Debendranath, popularly called Maharshi (Great Sage), was a writer, scholar, and mystic, who for many years had been a distinguished leader of the Brahmo Samaj (Theistic Church) movement founded by Raja Rammohan Roy.

In Letters to a Friend (1928) Tagore told C.F. Andrews, “I saw my father seldom; he was away a great deal, but his presence pervaded the whole house and was one of the deepest influences on my life.” When Rabindranath was 12 years old, his father took him on a four-month journey to the Punjab and the Himalayas. “The chains of the rigorous regime which had bound me snapped for good when I set out from home,” he wrote in his Reminiscences. Their first stop was at Bolpur, then an obscure rural retreat, now internationally known as Santiniketan, the seat of Visva-Bharati University founded by Tagore on December 22, 1918. This visit was Tagore’s first contact with rural Bengal, which he later celebrated in his songs. The Tagores’ final destination was Dalhousie, a beautiful resort in the Himalayas. Overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of the mountains, young Tagore wandered freely from one peak to another. During the sojourn, Debendranath took charge of his son’s education and read with him selections from Sanskrit, Bengali, and English literatures. Debendranath also sang his favorite hymns and recited to Rabindranath verses from the metaphysical Hindu treatises, the Upanishads. Stephen N. Hay surmised, in Asian Ideas of East and West, that “the special attention Debendranath had paid to his youngest sons” during this trip and the sense of liberation experienced by Rabindranath miraculously transformed him “from ugly duckling into much-admired swan.” In Hay’s view, “the pleasurable memory of sudden recognition consequent to a glamorous journey may have remained for the rest of Rabindranath’s life a stimulus to re-enact this archetypal experience.”

Among other influences, Tagore acknowledged three main sources of his literary inspiration: the Vaishnava poets of medieval Bengal and the Bengali folk literature; the classical Indian aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical heritage; and the modern European literary tradition, particularly the work of the English Romantic poets. Underlining Tagore’s many affinities with the European mind, Alexander Aronson, in Rabindranath through Western Eyes , tried to fit him into the Western literary tradition, but, as Edward J. Thompson pointed out in Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Dramatist , “Indian influences, of course, were the deepest and touched his mind far more constantly than any European ones, and at a thousand points.” Harmoniously blended and synthesized in Rabindranath were the sensuous apprehension and the mythopoeic tendency of the English romantics, the vision of the great mystics of India, the metaphysical quest of the sages of the Upanishads, the aesthetic sensibilities of an ancient poet like Kalidasa, and the devotional spirit of the medieval Vaishnavite poet-saints and the Bauls—mendicant wandering religious minstrels of Bengal.

Tagore began writing poetry at a very early age, and during his lifetime he published nearly 60 volumes of verse, in which he experimented with many poetic forms and techniques—lyric, sonnet, ode, dramatic monologue, dialogue poems, long narrative and descriptive works, and prose poems. “Unfortunately for both the West and for Tagore,” Mary M. Lago pointed out in Rabindranath Tagore , “many of his readers never knew—still do not know—that so many of his poems were written as words for music, with musical and verbal imagery and rhythms designed to support and enhance each other.” His Gitabitan (“ Song Collection ”), containing 2,265 songs that were all composed, tuned, and sung by himself, not only started a new genre in Bengali music, known as Rabindrasangit, but, in Lago’s view, became “an important demonstration” of his “belief in the efficacy of cultural synthesis. He used all the musical materials that came to hand: the classical ragas, the boat songs of Bengal, Vaishnava kirtan [group chanting] and Baul devotional songs, village songs of festival and of mourning, even Western tunes picked up during his travels and subtly adapted to his own uses.” Such spirit of experimentation and synthesis marked Tagore’s entire creative career.

His first notable book of lyrics, Sandhya Sangit (1882; “ Evening Songs ”), won the admiration of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Tagore later wrote in his Reminiscences , “the sadness and pain which sought expression in the Evening Songs had their roots in the depth of my being.” The book was closely followed by Prabhat Sangit (1883; “ Morning Songs ”), in which he celebrated his joy at the discovery of the world around him. The new mood was the outcome of a mystical experience he had had while looking at the sunrise one day: “As I continued to gaze, all of a sudden a covering seemed to fall away from my eyes, and I found the world bathed in a wonderful radiance, with waves of beauty and joy swelling on every side. This radiance pierced in a moment through the folds of sadness and despondency which had accumulated over my heart, and flooded it with this universal light,” he recalled in Reminiscences. He recounted this experience in greater detail in The Religion of Man : “I felt sure that some Being who comprehended me and my world was seeking his best expression in all my experiences, uniting them into an ever-widening individuality which is a spiritual work of art. To this Being I was responsible; for the creation in me is His as well as mine.” He called this Being his Jivan devata (“ The Lord of His Life ”), a new conception of God as man’s intimate friend, lover, and beloved that was to play an important role in his subsequent work.

His newly awakened sense of all-pervading joy in the universe expressed itself in Chhabi O Gan (1884; “ Pictures and Songs ”) and Kari O Kamal (1886; “ Sharps and Flats ”), in which he boldly celebrated the human body in such poems as “Tanu” (“Body”), “Bahu” (“Arms”), “Chumban” (“The Kiss”), “Stan” (“Breasts”), “Deher Milan” (“Physical Union”), and “Vivasana” (“Undraped Beauty”). He described Kari O Kamal as “the Song of Humanity standing on the road in front of the gateway of the Palace of Life” and believed it to be an important landmark in the evolution of his poetic outlook. It was, however, his new contemplative, mystical, religious, and metaphysical tone dominating Manasi (1890; “ The Mind’s Creation ”), Sonar Tari (1894; “ The Golden Boat ”), Chitra (1896), Naivedya (1901; “ Offerings ”), Kheya (1906; “ Ferrying Across ”), and Gitanjali (1910; Song Offerings ) that gave his lyrical poetry depth, maturity, and serenity and that eventually brought him world renown with the publication of the English translations of Gitanjali in 1912.

The publication of Gitanjali was the most significant event in Tagore’s writing career, for, following the volume’s appearance, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913—the first such recognition of an Eastern writer. And yet this slender volume of poems, which was “hailed by the literary public of England as the greatest literary event of the day” and which created “the literary sensation of the day” in America, according to the editors of the Literary History of the United States , reached English readers almost by chance. As Tagore explained in a letter to his niece Indira, he undertook the task of translating some of his poems into English during a March, 1912, illness that delayed his departure for England; he began his translations because he “simply felt an urge to recapture through the medium of another language the feelings and sentiments which had created such a feast of joy within me in the days gone by.” And once on board the ship in May 1912, he continued his translations to while away the time of travel.

Arriving in London in June 1912, he gave these translations to English painter William Rothenstein, who had visited India in 1910 and had shown interest in the poet’s work. Deeply impressed, Rothenstein had copies typed and sent to poet William Butler Yeats , poet and critic Stopford Brooke, and critic Andrew Bradley—all of whom enthusiastically received them. On June 30, Tagore gave a reading of his poems at Rothenstein’s house to a distinguished group of fellow poets, including American poet Ezra Pound , who was at that time the foreign editor of Poetry , founded by Harriet Monroe . Pound wanted Poetry to be the first American magazine to print Tagore, and in a letter of December 24, 1912, he wrote to Harriet Monroe that Tagore’s poems “are going to be THE sensation of the winter.” In November 1912, the India Society of London published a limited edition of 750 copies of Gitanjali , with an introduction by Yeats and a pencil-sketch of the author by Rothenstein as frontispiece. In December 1912, Poetry included six poems from the book. And thus the Gitanjali poems reached both sides of the Atlantic to an ever-widening circle of appreciative readers.

Gitanjali was written shortly after the deaths of Tagore’s wife, his two daughters, his youngest son, and his father. But as his son, Rathindranath, testified in On the Edges of Time , “he remained calm and his inward peace was not disturbed by any calamity however painful. Some superhuman sakti [force] gave him the power to resist and rise above misfortunes of the most painful nature.” Gitanjali was his inner search for peace and a reaffirmation of his faith in his Jivan devata. Its central theme was the realization of the divine through self-purification and service to humanity. When presenting Tagore the Nobel Prize, Harold Hjarne noted, “The Gitanjali is Mysticism, but not a mysticism that, relinquishing personality, seeks to become absorbed in the All to a point of Nothingness, but one that, with all the faculties of soul at highest pitch, eagerly sets forth to meet the Living Father of all Creation.” Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan said in The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore , “The poems of Gitanjali are the offerings of the finite to the infinite.” In his introduction to Gitanjali , Yeats called it “the work of supreme culture” and confessed, “I have carried the manuscript of these translations about me for days, reading it in railway trains, or on top of omnibuses and in restaurants, and I have often had to close it lest some stranger would see how it moved me.” Pound, in his Fortnightly Review essay, described Gitanjali as a “series of spiritual lyrics” and compared it to “the Paradiso of Dante.” Yeats and Pound set the tone of Tagore criticism in the West, and Gitanjali came to be looked upon as his most characteristic work.

The publication of Gitanjali was followed by five major poetical works in English translation: The Gardener (1913), The Crescent Moon (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), Lover’s Gift and Crossing (1918), and The Fugitive and Other Poems (1919). The Gardener was a feast of love lyrics, though it also included mystical and religious poems, nature poems, and even a few poems with political overtones. The Crescent Moon , a book of songs about children, celebrated their beauty, innocence, charity, divinity, and primordial wisdom. Thompson called these poems a “revelation of a child’s mind, comparable to the best that any language had seen.” The combined Lover’s Gift and Crossing contained some of Tagore’s best lyrics, and The Fugitive and Other Poems included “Urvashi,” Tagore’s rapturous incantation of the Eternal Female, suggesting affinities with Shelley’s “ Hymn to Intellectual Beauty .” In “Urvashi,” observed Thompson, there was “a meeting of East and West indeed, a glorious tangle of Indian mythology, modern science, and legends of European romance.”

J.C. Ghosh noted in Bengali Literature that “the more substantial and virile side of [Tagore’s] work, such as his social, political, descriptive, and narrative poetry and his poetry of abstract thought, was either never presented at all or was presented in a terribly mutilated and emasculated form.” Reviewing Tagore’s literary reception in the West, Nabaneeta Sen in a Mahfil essay came to the conclusion that “Rabindranath only became a temporary craze, but never a serious literary figure in the Western scene. He was intrinsically an outsider to the contemporary literary tradition of the West, and after a short, misunderstood visit to the heart of the West, he again became an outsider.”

In 1916 appeared Balaka ( A Flight of Swans ), which pointed to the new direction Tagore’s poetry was to take. “The poems of Balaka,” wrote Lago in Rabindranath Tagore , “reflect a time of account-taking and of Tagore’s reactions to the turbulence of the past four years: the excitement surrounding the Nobel award and the knighthood that followed in 1915, the premonitions of political disaster, and the anxieties of the World War.” The flying swans symbolized, for the poet, movement, restlessness, a longing for faraway sites, an eternal quest for the unknown. “I am like a migratory bird having two homes—and my home on the other side of the sea is calling me,” he had written to William Rothenstein in 1915. Between 1916 and 1934, Tagore made five visits to America and traveled to nearly every country in Europe and Asia, delivering lectures, promoting his educational ideas, and stressing the need for a meeting of the East and the West. And wherever he went he was greeted as a living symbol of India’s cultural and spiritual heritage.

In the last decade of his life, as he became conscious of his approaching death, Tagore turned to radical experimentation in poetic techniques and to purely humanistic concepts dealing with the problems of life and death. This new trend was reflected especially in his later Bengali poems collected in Punascha (1932; Postscript ), Shesh Saptak (1935; Last Octave ), Patraput (1935; Cupful of Leaves ), Prantik (1938; The Borderland ), Semjuti (1938; Evening Lamp ), Nabajatak (1940; Newly Born ), Rogashajyaya (1940; From the Sickbed ), Arogya (1941; Recovery ), and Sesh Lekha (1941; Last Writings ). These poems “became increasingly terse, luminous and precise in the use of imagery,” wrote Amiya Chakravarty in A Tagore Reader. In The Later Poems of Tagore , Sisir Kumar Ghose said, “Full of dramatic discords, through alternate rhythms of intensity and exhaustion, the[se] poems unfold the history of a conflict, long and carefully concealed, at the heart of the Rabindrean imagination.” He concluded, “To accept the best among the later poems is to alter our total conception of Tagore’s poetry.” “But,” he added, “its hour is not yet. In order to do this as it should be done the ideal critic of Tagore needs to be as, if not more, sensitive than the poet himself. ... Such a critic we do not have, unless he is in hiding.”

Tagore also published more than 40 plays, most of which were written for production in the open air for his students at Santiniketan. He himself took part in their performance as actor, producer, director, composer, and choreographer. He “mocked the commercial Bengali theater, burdened with heavy sets and realistic decor, and created a lyrical theater of the imagination,” wrote Balwant Gargi in his Folk Theater of India. Though Tagore was influenced by Western dramatic techniques and his plays, as Mohan Lal Sharma pointed out in a Modern Drama essay, “have close affinity with the poetic or symbolist European drama of the present century typified in the works of such writers as Maurice Maeterlinck,” he upheld the classical Indian tradition of drama as the depiction of emotion or rasa rather than of action. He blended this classical element with the folk tradition of Bengali Jatra performance—a combination of group singing, dancing, and acting induced by a trance-like state—to achieve a synthesis of music, poetry, dance, drama, and costume. Consequently, most of Tagore’s plays are interspersed with songs and are either lyrical or symbolic with subtle emotional and metaphysical overtones. The main principle of his plays, as he said himself, was “the play of feeling and not of action.” Judged by the standards of Western drama, therefore, they seem static, ill-constructed, and unsuitable for commercial production.

Tagore’s experiments in dramatic forms extended from his earliest musical and verse dramas in the 1880s, through rollicking social comedies and symbolic plays in prose, to the highly imaginative and colorful dance dramas of the 1930s. Well known in the first category are Valmiki Pratibha (1881), Kal-Mrigaya (1882), Prakritir Pratisodh (1884; published in English as Sanyasi in 1917), Mayar Khela (1888), Raja O Rani (1889; The King and the Queen , 1917), Visarjan (1890; Sacrifice , 1917), Chitrangada (1892; published in English as Chitra in 1913), and Malini (1896; English translation, 1917). All of these, except Malini , are in blank verse, and most of them could be described in Tagore’s own words as “a series of dramatic situations ... strung on a thread of melody.” The social comedies include Goday Galad (1892), Vaikunther Khata (1897), and Chirakumar Sabha (1926); and the notable symbolic plays in prose are Raja (1910; The King of the Dark Chamber, 1914), Dak-Ghar (1912; The Post Office, 1914), Phalguni (1916; The Cycle of Spring, 1917), Mukta-dhara (1922; The Waterfall , 1922), and Rakta-karavi (1924; Red Oleanders , 1925). Among the famous dance dramas are Chandalika (1933), Nrityanatya Chitrangada (1936), Chandalika Nrityanarya (1938), and Syama (1939).

Thematically, Prakritir Pratisodh —which means “nature’s revenge” and which was published in English under the title Sanyasi —was Tagore’s first important play. “This Nature’s Revenge ,” he wrote in Reminiscences , “may be looked upon as an introduction to the whole of my future literary work; or, rather this has been the subject on which all my writings have dwelt—the joy of attaining the Infinite within the finite.” In his own words, “the hero was a Sanyasi (hermit) who had been striving to gain a victory over Nature by cutting away the bonds of all desires and affections and thus to arrive at a true and profound knowledge of self. A little girl, however, brought him back from his communion with the infinite to the world and into the bondage of human affection. On coming back the Sanyasi realised that the great is to be found in the small, the infinite within the bounds of form, and the eternal freedom of the soul in love. It is only in the light of love that all limits are merged in the limitless.” Allegorically, the play represented the turning point in the poet’s own life. “This was to put in a slightly different form,” he confessed, “the story of my own experience, of the entrancing ray of light which found its way into the depths of the cave into which I had retired away from all touch of the outer world, and made me more fully one with Nature again.” By 1884, the year of the play’s first publication, Rabindranath had married his child-bride, Mrinalini Devi. He was then 22 and she only 10.

Of these earliest plays, however, Visarjan ( Sacrifice ) is the best as a drama of conflict and ideas, as Chitrangada ( Chitra ) is the loveliest as poetry. Sacrifice is a powerful denunciation of violence, bigotry, and superstition. It expresses Tagore’s abhorrence of the popular Bengali cult of Kali-worship involving animal sacrifice. The characters of the play, as Thompson observed, are “swayed by the strong wind of their creator’s emotions—puppets in the grip of a fiercely felt idea.” “The theme of Sacrifice ,” Thompson added, “had been implicit in many an obscure page of Indian religious thought. But Rabindranath’s play first gave its protest a reasoned and deliberate place in art.” Chitra is a fascinating poetic play dealing with a romantic episode from the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata: the love between Arjuna and Chitrangada, the beautiful daughter of Chitravahana, the king of Manipur. It seems to be modeled on Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, a romantic play that probably dated from the fourth century B.C., and it presents the evolution of human love from the physical to the spiritual. Thompson called it “a lyrical feast.” Krishna R. Kripalani, Tagore’s biographer, regarded it as “one of Rabindranath’s most beautiful plays, almost flawless as a work of art.” “The simple and bald episode” of the Mahabharata , he added, “was transformed by Rabindranath into a drama tense and vibrant with lyrical rapture and full of deep psychological insight.”

Among Tagore’s allegorical-philosophical-symbolic plays, Raja ( The King of the Dark Chamber ) is the most complex, written in the vein of Maeterlinck. The story is taken from a Buddhist Jataka , or story of reincarnation, but it undergoes a spiritual transformation in Tagore’s hands. The symbolic significance of the play has attracted the attention of many critics. In An Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore , Vishwarath S. Naravane wrote: “In this play, Queen Sudarshana represents the finite soul which longs for a vision of the Infinite” that is hidden in the dark, like “the true King, her real husband.” Radhakrishnan, in The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore , gave the following interpretation of the play: “An individual cannot reach the ideal so long as fragments of finiteness stick to him, so long as intellect and will are bound to the realm of finite nature.” As he explained in The Bengali Drama , P. Guha Thakurta regarded the theme of the play as the realization of truth through suffering and sorrow. Other critics have interpreted the play in terms of allegorical symbols: the real King is Truth or God or Life-Spirit; Queen Sudarshana is the individual soul; Suvama is Maya or illusion; Kanchi symbolizes the mind; and the maid Surangama represents self-surrender. Artistically, the play is a fine blending of the Jatra tradition and the classical form of Sanskrit drama.

Perhaps the most popular and the most frequently performed among Tagore’s plays is Dak-Ghar ( The Post Office ), which dramatizes the story of a lonely boy, Amal, confined to his sickroom, longing to be free. Day after day, he sits at the window, watching the colorful spectacle of life passing him by, until death brings him deliverance from earthly pain and confinement. The story presents Rabindranath’s own childhood experience of bondage and loneliness in a house governed by “servocracy.” As he wrote to Andrews, “I remember, at the time when I wrote it, my own feeling which inspired me to write it. Amal represents the man whose soul has received the call of the open road.”

The play was produced in 1913 by the Abbey Theatre Company in Dublin and in London. Kripalani reported that after attending a performance of the play in London, William Butler Yeats testified: “On the stage the little play shows that it is very perfectly constructed, and conveys to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace.” “Judged by a London standard,” wrote Ernest Rhys in Rabindranath Tagore: A Biographical Study , “it may seem that all [Tagore’s] dramatic work is lacking in ordinary stage effect, but to this criticism one can only reply that his plays were written to attain a naturalness of style and a simplicity of mode which only Irish players have so far realised for us.” A reviewer for The Times called the play “dreamy, symbolical, spiritual ... a curious play, leaving to a certain extent a sense of incompleteness, since it ends before the climax, rich in poetical thought and imagery, as well as a kind of symbolism that must not be pressed too closely.” Since The Post Office can be read on two levels, the naturalistic and the symbolic, it has remained a special favorite with Tagore readers. In his book Rabindranath Tagore , Thompson paid the play a high compliment: “ The Post Office does what both Shakespeare and Kalidas failed to do. It succeeds in bringing on the stage a child who neither shows off nor is silly.”

Following the public controversy that broke out between Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore in 1921 over the poet’s opposition to Gandhi’s noncooperation movement and his cult of the charkha (spinning wheel), Tagore’s popularity suffered a steep decline and he found himself more and more publicly isolated. Gandhi, failing to enlist the poet’s support, remarked: “Well, if you can do nothing else for me you can at least ... lead the nation and spin.” Tagore immediately replied: “Poems I can spin, songs I can spin, but what a mess I would make, Gandhiji, of your precious cotton!” There the controversy stopped. But the churnings in the poet’s mind over the political situation in the country produced Mukta-dhara in January 1922, a symbolic play with political overtones. A distant echo of Prayaschitta (1909; Atonement ), the play has been regarded by several critics as a noble tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and his campaign of nonviolence. Kripalani called the ascetic central character Dhananjaya, who teaches the people of Shivtarai to defy the authority of their unjust ruler through nonviolent civil resistance, a “prototype of Mahatma Gandhi” and wrote, “Perhaps no other play of Tagore expresses his political convictions with such directness and vigour. ... His abhorrence of exploitation, whether by a foreign or a native tyrant, and his faith that tyranny can be effectively resisted by non-violence and evil redeemed by voluntary sacrifice.” Tagore was making preparations to stage the play, but when he heard the news of Gandhi’s arrest in March 1922, he abandoned the preparations and Mukta-dhara was never produced.

Like Gandhi, Tagore preached against and fought the Indian caste system that fostered the concept of untouchability. The first number of Gandhi’s weekly Harijan , issued in Poona on February 11, 1933, carried a poem by Tagore, “The Cleanser,” on its front page. The same year, Tagore wrote Chandalika ( The Untouchable Girl ), a drama based on the Buddhist legend of Sardulakarnavadana. This is the story of a young untouchable girl, Prakriti, who falls in love with a handsome Buddhist monk, Ananda, when the latter asks her to give him some water to drink. As Ananda drinks water from her hands, she feels redeemed, spiritually reborn, newly aware of herself as a woman, and emancipated from the bondage of her birth and caste. No one could have paid a better tribute to Gandhi’s cause of Harijan uplift than Tagore did in this poetic play. It remains a personal testament of Tagore the humanist, exemplifying his faith in the dignity of humanity.

Between 1883 and 1934 Tagore published 14 novels, several of which were translated into English during his lifetime: Ghare-Baire (1916; The Home and the World , 1919), Nauka Dubi (1906; The Wreck , 1921), and Gora (1910; published in English under same title, 1924). Others were translated after his death, including: Dui Bon (1933; Two Sisters , 1945), Sesher Kavita (1929; Farewell, My Friend , 1946), Malancha (1934; The Garden , 1956), and Nashtanir (1901; The Broken Nest , 1971). Most of these are fundamentally social novels, a few with strong political undercurrents. Among his translated novels, Chokher Bali (1903; Binodini , 1959), Gora , and The Home and the World are the best known in the Western world.

With Binodini, titled in the original Bengali Chokher Bali —literally, “Eyesore”—Tagore “paved the way for the truly modern novel in India, whether realistic or psychological or concerned with social problems,” wrote its English translator Krishna R. Kripalani in his foreword to the 1959 edition. The novel gives an intimate picture of domestic relations in an upper middle-class Bengali Hindu family at the turn of the century and portrays the plight of a young widow, Binodini, who “asserts her right to love and happiness.” In Kripalani’s view, “Of all women characters created by Tagore in his many novels, Binodini is the most real, convincing, and full-blooded. In her frustrations and suffering is summed up the author’s ironic acceptance of the orthodox Hindu society of the day.”

In Gora Tagore created a socio-political novel voicing the aspirations of the resurgent India. Published in 1910, the year of the Gitanjali series of poems, it represented the peak of his fictional career. “This work,” wrote Naravane in An Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore, “has everything that one might expect from a masterpiece: brilliant delineation of characters; a story which offers surprises till the very end; a fluent, powerful style interspersed with bursts of poetic imagery, and absolute serenity.” Though heavily filled with polemics reflecting the social, religious, and political issues of the time, the novel projected Tagore’s concept of liberal nationalism based on the ideal of vishwa-bandhutva or international brotherhood. In a March 13, 1921, letter to Andrews, Tagore declared, “All humanity’s greatest is mine. The infinite personality of man has come from the magnificent harmony of all races. My prayer is that India may represent the cooperation of all the people of the earth.” In the extraordinary character and personality of the protagonist Gourmohan or Gora, Tagore tried to bring about the fusion of the East and the West to exemplify his ideal of the Universal Man. In Rabindranath Tagore , Lago declared Gora “a study of the relation between Hindu orthodoxy and Indian nationalism.” Gora’s sudden discovery that he has no parents, no home, no country, no religion, brings him freedom from all barriers: “But today I am free—yes, am standing freely in the center of a vast truth. Only now do I have the right to serve India. Today I have truly become an Indian. For me there is no conflict between Hindu, Muslim and Christian.”

The subject of The Home and the World is the political agitation resulting from the partition of Bengal in 1905. Tagore was at the time deeply involved in the Indian National Movement. But when militant Hindu nationalism began to turn to violence and terrorist methods, he took a public stand against this development and openly condemned the excesses of the Swadeshi ( swa, self; deshi , national) movement, which advocated the use of goods made in India. This position made him so unpopular with the nationalist Hindu intelligentsia that, in utter disillusionment, he withdrew from active politics and retreated into what he called the “poet’s corner.” But to answer his critics who had accused him of desertion and to reaffirm his own faith in the principles of truth and nonviolence, he wrote The Home and the World , which, as Bhabani Bhattacharya noted in an article that appeared in Rabindranath Tagore: A Centenary Volume , “roused a storm of controversy when it first appeared in serial form in the literary magazine Subui Patra and harsh pens assailed it not only as ‘unpatriotic’ but ‘immoral.’”

E.M. Forster, in a review that first appeared in Athenaeum and was later reprinted in Abinger Harvest , admired the novel’s theme but was repelled by its persistent “strain of vulgarity.” He wrote, “throughout the book one is puzzled by bad tastes that verge upon bad taste.” He thought the novel contained much of “a boarding-house flirtation that masks itself in mystic or patriotic talk.” “Yet the plain fact is,” as Bhattacharya pointed out, “that in matters of sex Tagore always retained in him a conservative core that was near-prudery, and his moments of realism in the context of such relationships were a whole epoch apart from the trends which our modern literary idiom calls ‘naturalistic.’”

Revolving around the three main characters—Nikhil, an aristocrat with noble ideals; his beautiful wife, Bimla; and his intimate but unscrupulous friend Sandip—the story is told in the first person singular by each one of these in the manner of Robert Browning ’s The Ring and the Book. Nikhil, the young protagonist, perhaps reflects Tagore’s own feelings and predicament at seeing the nationalist hostility against him simply “because I am not running amuck crying Bande Mataram. ” “Although a poet’s manifesto,” wrote Kripalani, “the novel is equally a testament of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, of love and truth, of his insistent warning that evil means must vitiate the end, however nobly conceived.”

Though Tagore was the first modern Indian writer to introduce psychological realism in his fiction, his novels were generally looked upon as old-fashioned in form. As Aronson noted in Rabindranath through Western Eyes , “At a time when writers, like Aldous Huxley, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, were experimenting with new forms of novel writing, at a time when the novel had reached its fullest maturity with the work of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in Russia, with Marcel Proust and Andre Gide in France, Rabindranath could not but strike his European contemporaries as belonging both in style and characterisation to a different order of artistic expression, which they had passed long ago, somewhere in the first half of the nineteenth century.”

From the artistic point of view, however, Tagore excelled in the art of short story writing. As Bhattacharya wrote, “The short story was intrinsically suited to Tagore’s temperament and it could carry the strongest echoes of his essentially poetic genius.” Tagore himself wrote in a letter from the Tagore family estate headquarters at Shileidah: “If I do nothing but write short stories I am happy, and I make a few readers happy. The main cause of happiness is that the people about whom I write become my companions: they are with me when I am confined to my room in the rains. On a sunny day they move about me on the banks of the Padma.”

Tagore wrote about 200 stories, the best of which appeared in English translation in four major collections during his lifetime: Broken Ties and Other Stories (1925), Mashi and Other Stories (1918), The Hungry Stones and Other Stories (1916), and The Glimpses of Bengal Life (1913). As a short story writer, Tagore was not only a pioneer in Bengali literature, but he also paved the way for modern writers like Premchand and such contemporary writers as Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, and R.K. Narain. Bose acknowledged in An Acre of Green Grass that Rabindranath “brought us the short story when it was hardly known in England.” Naravane wrote in An Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore , “The modern short story is Rabindranath Tagore’s gift to Indian literature.”

A substantial amount of Tagore’s writing was in the form of nonfictional prose—essays and articles, religious and philosophical treatises, journals and memoirs, lectures and discourses, history and polemics, letters, and travel accounts. Of these, his philosophical writings— Sadhana: The Realisation of Life (1913), Nationalism (1917), Personality (1917), Creative Unity (1922), The Religion of Man (1931), and Towards Universal Man (1961)—were central to his thought. These writings were deeply influenced by the teachings of the Upanishads. In the preface to Sadhana, which was published in the Harvard lecture series, he confessed, “The writer has been brought up in a family where texts of the Upanishads are used in daily worship; and he has had before him the example of his father who lived his long life in the closest communion with God while not neglecting his duties to the world or allowing his keen interest in all human affairs to suffer any abatement.” What appealed to Tagore the most in the teachings of the Upanishads was the concept of God as positive, personal, and realizable through love. He was also attracted to the Vaishnava ideal of love as the basis of man-God relationship. He believed that the love-drama between man and God was being enacted in the sensible world of color, sound, and touch. He was not only conscious of man’s divinity but also of God’s humanity. In Sonar Tari he wrote, “Whatever I can offer to God I offer to man and to God I give whatever can I give to man. I make God man and man God.” Such philosophical wisdom was reflected in many of his lyrics and dramas.

Tagore dictated his last poem a few hours before his death on August 7, 1941. The leading newspapers of the world published editorials paying tribute to him as “India’s greatest man of letters,” “the soul of Bengal,” and “ambassador of friendship between East and West.” But the Washington Post provided perhaps the most telling of assessments: “Tagore believed that East and West do not represent antagonistic and irreconcilable attitudes of the human mind, but that they are complementary, and since Tagore’s own work and thought represented a fusion of East and West, the fate of his poems and dramas at the hands of later generations ... may be the test of whether the age-old gulf between Asia and Europe can ever be bridged.”

Appeared in Poetry Magazine ("Amidst the rush and roar of life...")
Appeared in Poetry Magazine (“Come as you are...”)

Crossing 16

See All Poems by Rabindranath Tagore

Common Core State Standards Text Exemplars

Poetry and music, from the archive: rabindranath tagore, “harriet monroe, poet, friend of poets”, “high priestess of poetry”, lena khalaf tuffaha and cindy juyoung ok on the renowned and rebellious palestinian poet zakaria mohammed.

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Bibliography

("amidst the rush and roar of life..."), (“come as you are...”), fruit-gathering lv, the gardener 38, the gardener 85, gitanjali 35, ("i asked of destiny..."), ("i found a few old letters..."), i will not let you go, (“keep me fully glad...”), ("keep me fully glad..."), the last bargain, ("leave off your works, bride..."), ("lest i should know you..."), ("my soul is alight..."), ("o you mad, you superbly drunk..."), on the seashore, ("over the green and yellow..."), ("sing the song of the moment...", song vii (“my song has put off her adornments”), ("tell me if this is all true..."), the temple of gold, ("we both live in the same village..."), ("with a glance of your eyes...").

Poems to integrate into your English Language Arts classroom.

Composed, produced, and remixed: the greatest hits of poems about music.

14 of this Indian poet's love poems, first published in Poetry magazine.

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On this week’s episode, Cindy Juyoung Ok speaks with poet, essayist, and translator Lena Khalaf Tuffaha about the life and work of the renowned Palestinian poet and writer Zakaria Mohammed....

PUBLISHED IN INDIA IN BENGALI

Kavi-Kahini (poetry), 1878.
Bana-Phul (poetry), 1880.
Valmiki Pratibha (play), 1881.
Bhagnahriday (play), 1881.
Rudrachanda (play), 1881.
Europe-Pravasir Patra (letters), 1881.
Kal-Mrigaya (play), 1882.
Sandhya Sangit (poetry; title means Evening Songs ), 1882.
Prabhat Sangit (poetry; title means Morning Songs ), 1883.
Bau-Thakuranir Hat (novel), 1883.
Vividha Prasanga (essays), 1883.
Chhabi O Gan (poetry; title means Pictures and Songs ), 1884.
Nalini (play), 1884.
Saisav Sangit (poetry), 1884.
Bhanusimha Thakurer Padavali (songs), 1884.
Alochana (essays), 1885.
Rabichchhaya (songs), 1885.
Kari O Kamal (poetry; title means Sharps and Flats ), 1886.
Rajarshi (novel), 1887.
Chithipatra (essays), 1887.
Samalochana (essays), 1888.
Mayar Khela (play), 1888.
Manasi (poetry; title means The Mind's Creation ), 1890.
Europe Yatrir Diary (travel), Part 1, 1891, Part 2, 1893.
Goday Galad (play), 1892, new edition published as Sesh Raksha, 1928.
Sonar Tari (poetry; title means The Golden Boat ), 1894.
Chhota Galpa (short stories), 1894.
Vichitra Galpa (short stories), Parts 1 and 2, 1894.
Katha-Chatushtay (short stories), 1894.
Galpa-Dasak (short stories), 1895.
Nadi (poetry), 1896.
Chitra (poetry), 1896.
Chaitali (poetry), first published in Kavya Granthavali, 1896.
Vaikunther Khata (play), 1897.
Panchabhut (essays), 1897.
Kanika (poetry), 1899.
Katha (poetry), 1900.
Kalpana (poetry), 1900.
Kshanika (poetry), 1900.
Kahini (poetry and verse drama), 1900.
Naivedya (poetry; title means Offerings ), 1901.
Smaran (poetry), first published in Kavya-Grantha, 1903.
Sisu (poetry), first published in Kavya-Grantha, 1903.
Karmaphal (story), 1903.
Atmasakti (essays), 1905.
Baul (songs), 1905.
Bharatvarsha (essays), 1906.
Kheya (poetry; title means Ferrying Across ), 1906.
Vichitra Prabandha (essays), 1907.
Charitrapuja (essays), 1907.
Prachin Sahitya (essays), 1907.
Lokasahitya (essays), 1907.
Sahitya (essays), 1907.
Adhunik Sahitya (essays), 1907.
Hasya-Kautuk (plays), 1907.
Vyangakautuk (essays and plays), 1907.
Prajapatir Nirbandha (novel), 1908.
Raja Praja (essays), 1908.
Samuha (essays), 1908.
Svades (essays), 1908.
Samaj (essays), 1908.
Siksha (essays), 1908.
Mukut (play), 1908.
Sabdatattva (essays), 1909.
Dharma (sermons), 1909.
Santiniketan, Parts 1-8, 1909, Parts 9-11, 1910, Parts 12-13, 1911, Parts 14-15, 1915, Parts 15-16, 1916.
Prayaschitta (play; title means Atonement ), 1909, new edition published as Paritran, 1929.
Vidyasagar-Charit (essays), c. 1909.
Galpa Chariti (short stories), 1912.
Achalayatan (play), 1912, new edition published as Guru, 1918.
Utsarga (poetry), 1914.
Gitali (title means Songs ), 1914.
Atati Galpa (short stories), c. 1915.
Sanchay (essays), 1916.
Parichay (essays), 1916.
Galpasaptak (short stories), 1916.
Palataka (poetry), 1918.
Payla Nambar (short stories), 1920.
Sisu Bholanath (poetry), 1922.
Vasanta (play), 1923.
Puravi (poetry), 1925.
Grihapraves (play), 1925.
Pravahini (songs), 1925.
Chirakumar Sabha (play), 1926.
Sodhbodh (play), 1926.
Lekhan (epigrams), 1927.
Rituranga (plays), 1927.
Yatri (diary), 1929.
Yogayog (novel), 1929.
Tapati (play), 1929.
Bhanusimher Patravali (letters), 1930.
Navin (play), 1931.
Vanavani (poems and songs), 1931.
Sapmochan (play), 1931.
Punascha (poetry; title means Postscript ), 1932.
Parisesh (poetry), 1932.
Kaler Yatra (play), 1932.
Manusher Dharma (lectures), 1933.
Vichitrita (poetry), 1933.
Taser Des (play), 1933.
Bharatpathik Rammohan Roy (essays and addresses), 1933.
Sravan-Gatha (play), 1934.
Shesh Saptak (poetry; title means Last Octave ), 1935.
Sur O Sangati (letters), 1935.
Vithika (poetry), 1935.
Chhanda (essays), 1936.
Nrityanatya Chitrangada (play), 1936.
Japane-Parasye (travel), 1936.
Sahityer Pathe (essays), 1936.
Praktani (addresses), 1936.
Khapchhada (rhymes), 1937.
Kalantar (essays), 1937.
Sey (stories), 1937.
Chhadar Chhabi (poetry), 1937.
Pathe O Pather Prante (letters), 1938.
Banglabhasha Parichay (essays), 1938.
Semjuti (poetry; title means Evening Lamp ), 1938.
Prahasini (poetry), 1939.
Akas-Pradip (poetry), 1939.
Pather Sanchay (essays and letters), 1939.
Nabajatak (poetry; title means Newly Born ), 1940.
Sanai (poetry), 1940.
Tin Sangi (short stories), 1940.
Galpasalpa (stories and poetry), 1941.
Janmadine (poetry), 1941.
Asramer Rup O Vikas (essays), 1941.
Chhada (poetry), 1941.
Smriti (letters), 1941.
Chithipatra I (letters), 1942.
Chithipatra II (letters), 1942.
Chithipatra III (letters), 1942.
Atmaparichay (essays), 1943.
Sahiryer Svarup (essays), 1943.
Chithipatra IV (letters), 1943.
Sphulinga (poetry), 1945.
Chithipatra V (letters), 1945.
Muktir Upay (comedy), 1948.
Mahatma Gandhi (essays and addresses), 1948.
Visvabharati (addresses), 1951.
Baikali (songs and poetry), 1951.
Samavayaniti (essays), 1954.
Chitravichitra (poetry), 1954.
Itihas (essays), 1955.
Buddhadeva (essays and poetry), 1956.
Khrishta (essays and poems), 1959.
Chithipatra VI (letters), 1960.
Chithipatra VII (letters), 1960.
Chhinnapatravali (letters), 1960.

COLLECTED WORKS IN BENGALI

Kavya Granthavali, Satyaprasad Gangopadhyaya, 1896.
1908-09 Galpaguchha, [India], Part 1, 1900, Part 2, 1901, enlarged edition in five parts, single volume edition, three parts, Visva-Bharati (Calcutta), 1960.
1903-04 Kavya-Grantha, nine volumes, Majumdar Library, published in ten volumes, Indian Press, Volumes 1-6, 1915, Volumes 7-10, 1916.
Rabindra Granthavali, Hitavadi, 1904.
1907-09 Gadya-Granthavali, sixteen volumes, [India].
Gitabitan (songs; title means Song Collection ), [India], Part 1, 1914, Parts 1 and 2, 1931, Part 3, 1932, single volume edition, three parts, Visva-Bharati, 1960.
Ritu-Utsav, [India], 1926.
Patradhara (letters), [India], 1938.
1939-48 Rabindra-Rachanavali, twenty-six volumes, Visva-Bharati.
1940-41 Rabindra-Rachanavali Achalita Sangraha, two volumes, Visva-Bharati.
Rabindra-Rachanavali, Government of West Bengal, 1961.
Chelebhulano chaora (selection of Bengali rhymes, including essays and articles), edited by Biasvanatha Racya, Ananda Pabaliasarsa (Kalakata), 1995.

POETRY IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Gitanjali (title means Song Offerings ), [India], 1910, translation by the author, introduction by W. B. Yeats, India Society (London), 1912, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1913, Branden Press, 1978, translation by Brother James, University Press (Khaka, Bangladesh), 1983.
The Gardener, translation by the author, Macmillan (New York), 1913.
The Crescent Moon, translation by the author, Macmillan (London), 1913, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1916.
Balaka, [India], 1916, translation by Aurobindo Bose published as A Flight of Swans: Poems from Balaka, foreword by S. Radhakrishnan, J. Murray, 1955.
Fruit-Gathering, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1916.
Stray Birds, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1916.
Lover's Gift and Crossing, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1918.
The Fugitive and Other Poems, Santiniketan Press, 1919.
The Fugitive (poetry, songs, and plays), Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921.
Lipika (poetry, allegories, and stories), [India], 1922, translation by A. Bose, Jaico Publishing House (Bombay), 1969.
Poems from Tagore, introduction by C. F. Andrews, Macmillan (Calcutta), 1923.
Rabindranath Tagore: Twenty-two Poems, translation by Edward J. Thompson, E. Benn, 1925.
Fireflies, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1928, Collier Books, 1975.
Sheaves, Poems, and Songs by Rabindranath Tagore, compiled and translated by Nagendranath Gupta, Indian Press (Allahabad), 1929, 2nd edition, Greenwood Press, 1971.
The Child (originally published in English), Allen & Unwin, 1931.
Patraput (title means Cupful of Leaves ), [India], 1935, translation by Sisir Chattopadhyaya, foreword by Kalidas Bhattacharya, Patrhikrit Prakashani (Calcutta), 1969.
Syamali, [India], 1936, translation by Sheila Chatterjee and the author, Visva-Bharati, 1955.
Prantik (title means The Borderland ), [India], 1938 [and] Rogashajyaya (title means From the Sickbed ), [India], 1940 [and] Arogya (title means Recovery ), [India], 1940 [and] Sesh Lekha (title means Last Writings ), [India], 1941, translated together by A. Bose as Wings of Death: The Last Poems of Rabindranath Tagore, foreword by Gilbert Murray, J. Murray, 1960.
The Herald of Spring: Poems from Mohua, translation by A. Bose, J. Murray, 1957.
Ode to a Parted Love, Jaico Publishing House (Bombay), 1959.
Shesh Lekha: The Last Poems of Rabindranath Tagore, translation by Pritish Nandy, Dialogue Publications (Calcutta), 1973.
On the Shores of Eternity: Poems from Tagore on Death and Mortality , Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1999.
Particles, Jottings, Sparks: The Collected Brief Poems of Rabindranath Tagore , HarperCollins (New Delhi, India), 2000.
Rabindranath Tagore: Final Poems , George Braziller (New York, NY), 2001.
Songs of Rabindranath Tagore: Translated in Rhyme , Shipra Publications (Delhi, India), 2002.

Translated poetry collected in numerous omnibus volumes, including Later Poems of Rabindranath Tagore, translation and introduction by A. Bose, foreword by Yehudi Menuhin with assessment by Hermann Hesse, P. Owen, 1974, Funk, 1976, Minerva Press (New York, NY), 1976; Forty Poems of Rabindra Nath Tagore, edited by Sisir Kumar Ghose, Arnold-Heinemann (New Delhi), 1984; Some Songs and Poems from Rabindranath Tagore, translation by Pratima Bowes, Allied, 1984; and Selected Poems: Rabindranath Tagore, translation by William Radice, Viking Penguin, 1985.

PLAYS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Prakritir Pratisodh (verse drama), [India], 1884, translation by Edwin Lo-tien Fang published as Sanyasi, Commercial Press (Shanghai), 1936; also published as Sanyasi; or, The Ascetic in Sacrifice and Other Plays, Macmillan (New York), 1917.
Raja O Rani (verse drama), [India], 1889, translation published as The King and Queen in Sacrifice and Other Plays, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917; translation by Shakuntala Rao Sastri published as Devouring Love, East West Institute (New York), 1961.
Visarjan (verse drama), [India], 1890, translation published in Sacrifice and Other Plays, Macmillan (New York), 1917; new version edited and translated by R. K. Bamsal, published as Sacrifice, Uniteck Publications (Agra), 1971.
Chitrangada (verse drama), [India], 1892, translation by Birenda Nath Roy, Sribhumi Publishing Co., 1957; translation by the author published as Chitra, the India Society (London), 1913, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1926.
Viday-Abhisap (verse drama), [India], 1894, translation by Thompson published as The Curse at Farewell, Harrap, 1924; also published as Kach and Debjani in The Fugitive, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921.
Malini, first published in Kavya Granthavali, Satyaprasad Gangopadhyaya, 1896, translation published in Sacrifice and Other Plays, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917.
Saradotsav (one-act), [India], 1908 (new edition published as Rinsodh, 1921), translation published as Autumn Festival, Brahmo Mission Press (Calcutta), 1919.
Raja, [India], 1910 (new edition published as Arup Ratan, 1920), translation by the author published as The King of the Dark Chamber, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1914.
Dak-Ghar, [India], 1912, translation by Devabrata Mukerjea published as The Post Office, preface by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press (Ireland), 1914, T. M. MacGlinchey, 1971, new translation published as The Post Office, Macmillan (New York), 1914, Verry, 1978.
Phalguni, [India], 1916, translation by Andrews and Nishi-Kanta Sen with revision by the author published as The Cycle of Spring, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917.
Sacrifice and Other Plays, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917, Macmillan (London), 1963.
Mukta-dhara, [India], 1922, translation published as The Waterfall in Modern Review, 1922 ; translation by Marjorie Sykes published in Three Plays, Oxford University Press (Bombay), 1950.
Rakta-karavi, [India], 1924, translation published as Red Oleanders, illustrations by Gagendranath Tagore, in Visva-Bharati Quarterly, September, 1924, translation published as Red Oleanders, Macmillan (London), 1925, Macmillan (New York), 1926.
Natir Puja, [India], 1926 (first produced at Santiniketan, May 7, 1926), translation by Sykes published serially in Visva-Bharati Quarterly, February-October, 1945 , published as Dancing Girl's Worship in Three Plays, Oxford University Press (Bombay), 1950.
Chandalika, [India], 1933 (first produced in Calcutta at Madan Theatre, September 12, 1933), translation and introduction by Kripalani published in Visva-Bharati Quarterly, February, 1938, translation by Sykes published in Three Plays, Oxford University Press (Bombay), 1950.
Chandalika Nrityanatya (dance drama), [India], 1938, translation by Shyamaree Devi published in Orient Review, January-February, 1956.
1955-56 Syama, [India], 1939 (first produced in Calcutta, October 10, 1936), translation by Bharatendu Chakravarti published in Eastern Post, winter, translation by P. K. Saha published in Thought, July 31, 1971.
Bansari, Visva-Bharati, 1943, reprinted, 1948.
Three Plays (contains Mukta-dhara, Natir Puja, and Chandalika ), translation by Sykes, Oxford University Press (Bombay), 1950, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1970.
Three Riddle Plays (contains The Test, The Reception, and The Patron ), translation by Prithvindra Chakravarti, Ind-US, 1983.

NOVELS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Nashtanir, [India], 1901, translation by Mary M. Lago and Supriya Sen published as The Broken Nest, introduction by Lago, University of Missouri Press, 1971.
Chokher Bali (first published serially in Bangadarsan, 1901), [India], 1903, translation by Surendranath Tagore published as Eyesore in Modern Review, January-December, 1914, translation by Kripalani published as Binodini, W. S. Heinman (New York, NY), 1959, revised edition, Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi), 1968.
Nauka Dubi (first published serially in Bangadarsan, 1903), [India], 1906, translation by J. G. Drummond published as The Wreck, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921.
Gora (first published serially in Pravasi, 1907-10), [India], 1910, translation by W. W. Pearson published serially in Modern Review, January-December, 1923, translation by the author with revision by Surendranath Tagore, Macmillan (London), 1924 , Macmillan (New York, NY), 1925; abridged and simplified edition by E. F. Dodd, Macmillan (London), 1963.
Chaturanga, [India], 1916, translation published serially as A Story in Four Chapters in Modern Review, February-May, 1922, translation published as Broken Ties, Macmillan (London), 1925, translation by Asok Mitra published as Chaturanga, Sahitya Academi (New Delhi), 1963, Interculture Associates, 1974.
Ghare-Baire, [India], 1916, translation by Surendranath Tagore published serially as At Home and Outside in Modern Review, January-December, 1918, translation with revision by the author published as The Home and the World, Macmillan (New York), 1919, Verry, 1978.
Sesher Kavita, [India], 1929, translation by Kripalani published as Farewell My Friend, New India Publishing Co. (London), 1946.
Dui Bon, [India], 1933, translation by Kripalani published as Two Sisters, Visva-Bharati, 1945.
Malancha, [India], 1934, translation by Kripalani published with Sesher Kavita as Farewell My Friend [and] The Garden, Jaico Publishing House (Bombay), 1956.
Char Adhyay, [India], 1934, translation published as Novelette of Young India: Four Chapters in Asia, December, 1936-April, 1937, translation by Surendranath Tagore published as Four Chapters, Visva-Bharati, c. 1950.

SHORT FICTION IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Glimpses of Bengal Life, translation and introduction by Rajani Ranjan Sen, G. A. Nateson & Co. (Madras), 1913.
The Hungry Stones and Other Stories, translation by the author, Andrews, Thompson, Panna Lal Basu, Prabhat Kumar Mukerji, and Sister Nivedita, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1916, AMS Press, 1970.
Mashi and Other Stories, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1918, Arno Press, 1978.
Tota-Kahini, translation published as The Parrot's Training, Thacker, Spink & Co., 1918, published in Bengali in Lipika, 1922.
The Trial of the Horse, Brahmo Mission Press (Calcutta), 1919, published in The Parrot's Training and Other Stories.
Broken Ties and Other Stories, Macmillan (London), 1925, Arno Press, 1978.
The Runaway and Other Stories, edited by Somnath Maitra, Visva-Bharati, 1958.

Translated short fiction collected in numerous omnibus volumes, including Collected Stories from Rabindranath Tagore, Macmillan (Calcutta), 1970, and Collected Stories, Macmillan (New Delhi), 1974.

NONFICTION IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Jivansmriti (autobiography; first published serially in Pravasi, 1911), [India], 1912, translation by Surendranath Tagore published serially in Modern Review as My Reminiscences, January-December, 1916, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917, Gordon Press, 1978, published as Reminiscences, Macmillan (London), 1946, reprinted, 1971.
Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1913, Omen Press (Tuscon, AZ), 1972.
Personality, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917, Macmillan (Madras), 1970.
Nationalism (lectures), Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917, Greenwood Press, 1973.
Japan Yatri, [India], 1919, translation by Shakuntala Rao Sastri published as A Visit to Japan, edited by Walter Donald Kring, East West Institute, 1961.
Greater India, S. Ganesan (Madras), 1921.
Thought Relics, translation by the author, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921, enlarged edition published as Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore, edited by Andrews, 1929.
Creative Unity, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1922, Gordon Press, 1978.
Ethics of Destruction, Ganesh & Co. (Madras), 1923.
Talks in China: Lectures Delivered in April and May, 1924, Visva-Bharati, 1925.
The Religion of Man (lectures), Macmillan (New York, NY), 1931, AMS Press, 1981.
India and the Pacific, Allen & Unwin, 1937.
The True India: A Plea for Understanding, Allen & Unwin, 1939.
Chhelebela, [India], 1940, translation by Sykes published as My Boyhood Days, Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan), 1940, 2nd edition, Visva-Bharati (Calcutta), 1941.
Man (lectures), Kitabistan (Allahabad), 1946, Andhra University Press (Waltair), 1965.
My Early Life, edited by Rajendra Verma, Macmillan (Madras), 1952, Macmillan (Bombay), 1955.
Visva-Bharati and Its Institutions, Pulinbihari Sen (Santiniketan), 1956.
Our Universe (first published as Visva-Parichaya 1937), translation by Indu Dutt, foreword by Malcolm MacDonald, Meridian Books (London), 1958, Interculture Associates, 1969.
Towards Universal Man (essays), edited by Bhabani Bhattacharya, introduction by Humayan Kabir, Asia Publishing House (New York, NY), 1961.
Pioneer in Education: Essays and Exchanges Between R. Tagore and L. K. Elmhirst, J. Murray, 1961.
Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (New Delhi), 1962.
The Cooperative Principle (essays and addresses), edited by Pulinhihari Sen, translation by Surendranath Tagore, Apurvakumar Chanda, Somnath Maitra, and Jitendranarayan Sen, Visva-Bharati, 1963.
Mahatma Gandhi, compiled by Pulinbihari Sen, Visva-Bharati, 1963.
Gagendranath Tagore (art criticism), edited by Pulinbihari Sen, Indian Society of Oriental Art (Calcutta), 1972.
Selected Writings on Literature and Language , edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001.
Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Writings for Children , edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Translated nonfiction collected in numerous omnibus volumes, including Glorious Thoughts of Tagore, compiled by N. B. Sen, New Book Society of India (New Delhi), 1965; Upanishads in the Eyes of Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology of the Poet Tagore's Writings, Interpretative of and Related to Upanishadic Verse, compiled by Anil Kumar Mukherji, foreword by Saroj Kumar Das, Dasgupta (Calcutta), 1975; and Lectures and Addresses, Asia Book Corporation of America, 1988.

LETTERS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Chhinnapatra, [India], 1912, translation by Surendranath Tagore published as Glimpses of Bengal, Macmillan (London), 1911, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921.
Letters, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1917.
Letters from Abroad (first published serially in Modern Review, October, 1921-December, 1922), S. Ganesan (Madras), 1924, enlarged edition published as Letters to a Friend, edited by Andrews, Allen & Unwin, 1928.
Paschim Yatrir Diary, [India], 1924, translation by Dutt published as The Diary of a Westward Voyage, Asia Publishing House (New York, NY), 1962, Greenwood Press, 1975.
Russiar Chithi, [India], 1931, translation by Sasadhar Sinha published as Letters from Russia, Visva-Bharati, 1960.
(With Mohandas Gandhi) Mahatmaji and the Depressed Humanity, Visva-Bharati Book Shop (Calcutta), 1932.
(With Gilbert Murray) East and West, Allen & Unwin, 1935.
(With Yone Noguchi) Poet to Poet, Visva-Bharati, 1939.
Rolland and Tagore: Letters and Transcripts of Conversations, 1919-1930, translation by Indira Chaudhurani and Alex Aronson, edited by Aronson and Kripalani, Visva-Bharati, 1945.
Imperfect Encounter: Letters of William Rothenstein and Rabindranath Tagore, 1911-1941, edited with introduction and notes by Mary M. Lago, Harvard University Press, 1972.
The Mahatma and the Poet: Letters and Debates between Gandhi and Tagore, 1915-1941, compiled and edited with an introduction by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, National Book Trust (New Delhi, India), 1997.
Tagore's works are collected in numerous general omnibus volumes, including The Golden Boat, translation by B. Bhattacharya, Allen & Unwin, 1932, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1933, 5th revised edition, Ind-US, 1980; The Housewarming and Other Selected Writings, edited and with an introduction by Chakravarty, translation by Mary Lago, Tarun Gupta, and Chakravarty, New American Library, 1965; Tripura's Ties with Tagore: A Compilation of Selected Letters and Songs of Tagore, translation by Chiranjiv Kaviraj, Directorate of Education, Government of Tripura Press (Agartala), 1969; Collected Works, Gordon Press, 1978; The Mystifying Songs by Tagore, Gloucester Art Press, 1988; Selected Short Stories, Viking Penguin, 1991; I Won't Let You Go: Selected Poems, South Asia Books, 1992; The Collected Poems and Plays, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1993 and The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by Sisir Kumar Das, Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi), 1994.
Author of numerous songs, collected in such volumes as Gitimalya, [India], 1914, translation by Brother James published as Gitimalya: Garland of Songs, University Press (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 1984; Twenty-six Songs of Rabindranath Tagore, introduction and literal translation by Arnold A. Bake and Phillip Stern, free translation by R. Tagore, P. Geuthner (Paris), 1935; and Svaralipi: Anthology of One Hundred Songs of Rabindranath Tagore in Staff Notation, introduction by Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji, foreword by Kamaladevi Chattapadhyay, Sangeet Natak Akademi (New Delhi), Volume 1, 1961, Volume 2, 1967.
Translator of numerous works, and contributor of works in a variety of genres to books and periodicals.

Tagore’s Essays and Short Stories: Exploring the Lyrical Prose of a Literary Maestro

Rabindranath Tagore, one of India’s most renowned literary figures, continues to inspire readers across generations with his timeless writings. While he is best known for his poetry and songs, his essays and short stories carry an equal weight of profundity and nuance. They serve as a window into his philosophy, beliefs, and insights about the world and humanity. This article delves deep into Tagore’s essays and short stories, revealing the depth of his thoughts and the beauty of his prose.

A Lyrical Exploration of Humanity

Tagore’s writings have always been marked by a deep humanism. In essays such as “Nationalism” and “The Religion of Man”, he delves into the nature of identity, nationhood, and the spiritual essence of humanity. His essays frequently question the artificial boundaries that societies construct, be they between nations, religions, or races.

In “Nationalism,” for example, he warns of the dangers of aggressive nationalism, drawing on his experiences of British colonialism and the rising tide of Japanese militarism. Tagore’s vision of a world united in its diversity is more relevant today than ever, as we grapple with rising tides of nationalism and xenophobia.

The Essence of Everyday Life

One of the defining characteristics of Tagore’s short stories is his deep sensitivity to the rhythms of everyday life, especially in rural Bengal. Stories like “The Kabuliwala” and “The Postmaster” are evocative portrayals of ordinary people dealing with universal themes: love, loss, loneliness, and the inexorable march of time.

In “The Kabuliwala,” the bond between a dry fruit seller from Kabul and a young Bengali girl poignantly illustrates the transcendent nature of human connection, unaffected by the boundaries of language, culture, or religion. This story, like many others, captures the fleeting moments of beauty in everyday encounters.

Tagore’s Feminine Voice

Tagore’s perspective on women and the feminine is particularly striking. In an era where women’s voices were often stifled, Tagore wrote essays and stories that provided a powerful commentary on the condition of women in society.

Short stories like “Punishment” and “The Wife’s Letter” offer a vivid portrayal of the challenges faced by women in a patriarchal society, their inner turmoil, and their silent resilience. Through his narratives, Tagore advocated for a greater understanding and respect for women, emphasizing their integral role in the social and spiritual fabric of the nation.

Nature and the Cosmic Dance

One cannot discuss Tagore without mentioning his deep spiritual connection with nature. This is evident not only in his poems but also in his essays and short stories. Nature, for Tagore, was not just a passive backdrop but a living, breathing entity that danced in harmony with humanity.

His essay “Tapovan” (meaning forest of meditation) reflects his belief in the Indian tradition of perceiving nature as a place of spiritual retreat and enlightenment. The forests, rivers, and mountains of India were not just geographical features but sacred spaces that nurtured the soul.

Influence of the West

Tagore’s essays also provide a glimpse into his engagement with Western thought. His frequent travels to Europe and America, interactions with intellectuals, and exposure to Western literature and philosophy deeply influenced his writings. While he admired the West’s scientific and rational spirit, he was critical of its materialism and moral bankruptcy.

In his essay “The East and the West,” Tagore presents a balanced view, emphasizing the need for a synthesis of Eastern spirituality and Western material progress for the true advancement of humanity.

Tagore’s essays and short stories are a testament to his vast intellectual depth and emotional range. From thought-provoking philosophical discourses to heart-wrenching tales of ordinary people, his writings traverse a vast landscape of ideas and emotions.

Today, as the world stands at numerous crossroads, be it in terms of socio-political challenges or moral and spiritual dilemmas, revisiting Tagore provides us with not only solace but also wisdom. His belief in the unity of humanity, the sacredness of nature, and the need for a balanced synthesis of traditions can guide us in these tumultuous times.

In essence, Rabindranath Tagore remains not just a literary giant but also a beacon of light, illuminating the path towards a more inclusive, harmonious, and enlightened world.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on rabindranath tagore.

Essay on Rabindranath Tagore: Rabindranath Tagore was a legendary Indian poet. Furthermore, he was also a great philosopher , patriot , painter, and humanist. People often made use of the word Gurudev with regard to him. This exceptional personality was born on the 7th of May in 1861 at Calcutta. His early education took place at home by a variety of teachers. Also, through this education, he got knowledge of many subjects. His higher education took place in England. Above all, Rabindranath Tagore began writing poems from a very young age.

Works of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore began to write drama from sixteen years of age. At the age of twenty, Rabindranath Tagore wrote original dramatic piece Valmiki Pratibha. Most noteworthy, Rabindranath Tagore works focused on feelings and not on action. In 1890 he wrote another drama work Visarjan. Visarjan is probably the best drama work of Rabindranath Tagore.

Similarly, from the age of sixteen Rabindranath Tagore began to write short stories. His first short story was Bhikarini. Most noteworthy, he is the founder of the Bengali-language short story genre. Tagore certainly wrote numerous stories from 1891 to 1895. Also, stories from this period form the collection of Galpaguchchha. It is a big collection of 84 stories.

Rabindranath Tagore was certainly in touch with novels as well. He wrote eight notable novels. Furthermore, he wrote four novellas.

Rabindranath Tagore was certainly not short on songs. The man enjoys the reputation of writing a mighty 2230 songs. The popular name in usage is rabindrasangit, which refers to Tagore’s songs. His songs certainly reflect Indian culture . His famous song Amar Shonar Bangla is the national anthem of Bangladesh. Above all, he wrote the national anthem of India Jana Gana Mana.

Rabindranath Tagore also had excellent skills in drawing and painting. Probably, Rabindranath Tagore was red-green color blind. Due to this, his artworks contain strange color themes.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Rabindranath Tagore’s contribution to politics

Rabindranath Tagore was active in politics. He was in total support of Indian nationalists. Furthermore, he was in opposition to British rule . His work Manast contains his political views. He also wrote a number of patriotic songs. Rabindranath Tagore increased the motivation for Indian independence. He wrote some works for patriotism. There was great love among the masses for such works. Even Mahatma Gandhi showed his favor for these works.

Most noteworthy, Rabindranath Tagore did renunciation of his knighthood. Furthermore, he took this step to protest the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.

In conclusion, Rabindranath was a patriotic Indian. He was certainly a man of many talents. His contribution to Literature, arts, music, and politics is brilliant.

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> The Cambridge History of World Literature
> Viśvasāhitya: Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature

Book contents

The Cambridge History of World Literature
Copyright page
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I Genealogies
Part II Thinking the World
9 Does Poetry Make Worlds?
10 Ecosystems of World Literature
11 From World Literature to World Philosophy and Back Again
12 Saving Europe through Weltliteratur : The Case of Victor Klemperer
13 Viśvasāhitya : Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature
Part III Transregional Worlding
Part IV Cartographic Shifts
Part V World Literature and Translation
Part VI Poetics, Genre, Intermediality
Part VII Scales, Polysystems, Canons
Part VIII Modes of Reading and Circulation
Part IX The Worldly and the Planetary

13 - Viśvasāhitya : Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature

from Part II - Thinking the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2021

12 Saving Europe through Weltliteratur: The Case of Victor Klemperer
13 Viśvasāhitya: Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature

Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on world literature, Viśvasāhitya (1907), is important not just because of the political and historical circumstances of its production, but because it advocates a method of ‘doing’ world literature that potentially frees us from the conundrums besetting the methods used so far if scholars writing on the essay were to read it for what it actually says. In this paper, the Bengali text of this essay is closely interrogated to arrive at the surprising conclusion that the idea of world literature that he arrives at in this essay, in complete contrast to Goethe’s, is not an addition of the national literatures of the world – that, he says, is a very provincial way of looking at the question. Instead, he posits here a philosophical notion related to an understanding of the self and the other which is predicated upon his inheritance of, and interest in, both Upanishadic high theory as well as popular folk culture. His concept (or anti-concept) was premised upon his advice to find the world in the self, and was one that may, perhaps, be mined for its emphasis on particularity and attention to the individual as it exists in relation to the whole.

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Viśvasāhitya : Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature
By Rosinka Chaudhuri
Edited by Debjani Ganguly , University of Virginia
Book: The Cambridge History of World Literature
Online publication: 17 August 2021
Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009064446.014

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Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet , short-story writer, song composer, playwright, and painter. He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature , helped introduce Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India .

What did Rabindranath Tagore write?

Rabindranath Tagore published several poetry collections, notably Manasi (1890), Sonar Tari (1894; The Golden Boat ), and Gitanjali (1910); plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra ); and novels, including Gora (1910) and Ghare-Baire (1916). He also wrote some 2,000 songs , which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society.

What awards did Rabindranath Tagore win?

In 1913 Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature . Tagore was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh) Massacre .

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Rabindranath Tagore (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died August 7, 1941, Calcutta) was a Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature , thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit . He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India . In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature .

The son of the religious reformer Debendranath Tagore , he early began to write verses, and, after incomplete studies in England in the late 1870s, he returned to India. There he published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius. It contains some of his best-known poems, including many in verse forms new to Bengali , as well as some social and political satire that was critical of his fellow Bengalis.

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to manage his family’s estates at Shilaidah and Shazadpur for 10 years. There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (the main channel of the Ganges River ), in close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for them became the keynote of much of his later writing. Most of his finest short stories, which examine “humble lives and their small miseries,” date from the 1890s and have a poignancy, laced with gentle irony , that is unique to him (though admirably captured by the director Satyajit Ray in later film adaptations). Tagore came to love the Bengali countryside, most of all the Padma River, an often-repeated image in his verse. During these years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894; The Golden Boat ), and plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra ). Tagore’s poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his more than 2,000 songs, which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society.

In 1901 Tagore founded an experimental school in rural West Bengal at Shantiniketan (“Abode of Peace”), where he sought to blend the best in the Indian and Western traditions. He settled permanently at the school, which became Visva-Bharati University in 1921. Years of sadness arising from the deaths of his wife and two children between 1902 and 1907 are reflected in his later poetry, which was introduced to the West in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912). This book, containing Tagore’s English prose translations of religious poems from several of his Bengali verse collections, including Gitanjali (1910), was hailed by W.B. Yeats and André Gide and won him the Nobel Prize in 1913. Tagore was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar (Jallianwalla Bagh) Massacre .

From 1912 Tagore spent long periods out of India, lecturing and reading from his work in Europe , the Americas, and East Asia and becoming an eloquent spokesperson for the cause of Indian independence. Tagore’s novels in Bengali are less well known than his poems and short stories; they include Gora (1910) and Ghare-Baire (1916), translated into English as Gora and The Home and the World , respectively. In the late 1920s, when he was in his 60s, Tagore took up painting and produced works that won him a place among India’s foremost contemporary artists.

By Rabindranath Tagore

‘Freedom’ by Rabindranath Tagore is a powerful and effective poem about freedom. The speaker spends the seventeen lines of the poem describing the kind of freedom he hopes his country will find.

Rabindranath Tagore

Nationality: Indian

He is one of the most important Bengali writers in Indian history.

Poem Analyzed by Emma Baldwin

B.A. English (Minor: Creative Writing), B.F.A. Fine Art, B.A. Art Histories

As is common within Tagore’s verse , the language is quite easy to read, filled with beautiful metaphors and similes , and hard to forget. While it seems likely that this poem was directed to, and written about, the country of India, it’s also likely that readers from different countries can relate to Tagore’s words and consider them in different contexts.

Explore Freedom

1 Summary
2 Structure and Form
3 Literary Devices
4 Detailed Analysis
5 FAQs
6 Similar Poetry

Summary

‘Freedom’ by Rabindranath Tagore is a beautiful poem directed to the people of the poet’s home country – India.

This powerful poem begins with the speaker telling his listener, the people of India, and the country as a whole, that he is going to claim freedom for them. It is the freedom that’s going to allow them to escape from the oppression they suffered under, in various forms, for centuries. The freedom of the future is calling to them, with a bright light and a beckoning sound.

He goes on to say that fate, as determined by others, is no longer going to play a part in their lives. They are going to be free from “dwelling in a puppet’s world.” They are no longer going to have to live a “mimicry of life.”

Structure and Form

‘Freedom’ by Rabindranath Tagore is a seventeen-line poem that is written in free verse . This means the lines do not make use of a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. They are also contained within one stanza . Upon a cursory glance, readers will immediately notice that the lines vary greatly in length. Some are as short as four words, while others are closer to ten.

Literary Devices

Throughout this poem, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to:

Enjambment : This can be seen when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines one and two as well as lines four and five.
Caesura : can be seen when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This can be accomplished through the use of punctuation or through a natural pause in a line. For example: “breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning.”
Imagery : can be seen when the poet uses particularly interesting descriptions. These should trigger the reader’s senses. For example, “whole sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds.”
Alliteration : occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “breaking,” “back,” “blinding,” and “beckoning” in line four and “helm” and “hand” in line eleven.

Detailed Analysis

Freedom from fear is the freedom I claim for you my motherland! Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head, breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future; Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith you fasten yourself in night’s stillness,

In the first lines of this poem, the speaker addresses his words to India. This is implicit in the poet’s country of birth. But, since India is not mentioned by name in this poem, it’s possible to also interpret these words as a reflection on another country. The poet uses an apostrophe , or an address to someone or something that cannot hear or respond to their words, in these lines. They tell India that they “claim freedom from fear” for the country.

It is a special freedom, one that is separate from “the burden of the ages.” The history of the country, and the various kinds of subjugation that the country’s people have suffered under, will be relieved with this new freedom. No longer shall the people of India bend their heads in submission or break their backs with hard work.

Instead, the Indian people will be blinded by the “beckoning call of the future.”The poet continues to repeat the word “freedom.” This occurs in several lines of this poem. It is a literary device known as anaphora . There are also numerous examples of alliteration in these lines, for example, “shackles” and “slumber” in line six.

Lines 8-17

mistrusting the star that speaks of truth’s adventurous paths; freedom from the anarchy of destiny whole sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds, and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as death. Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet’s world, where movements are started through brainless wires, repeated through mindless habits, where figures wait with patience and obedience for the master of show, to be stirred into a mimicry of life.

The speaker tells their intended listener, the country of India, and the people of India, that from now on, they will no longer be guided by the “anarchy of destiny.” This suggests that the speaker sees his people as, for a long time, being controlled by someone else’s determination of what their fate should be. The poet uses a wonderful example of imagery in these lines, in addition to personification , as he describes the shape of destiny and how the people of India had to “yield[…] to the blind uncertain winds.”

While this could be interpreted as a beautiful image, the following line describes a “hand ever rigid and cold as death” ensuring that readers see it as a negative. This is also a good example of juxtaposition . Readers can compare this line, which is emblematic of the past, with the blinding, beckoning light of the future from the previous lines.

The final few lines of the poem compare the life that the speaker’s people had been living to a puppet show. They were puppets on a wire, waiting with “patience and obedience for the / master of show.” No longer, the speaker implies. They will no longer repeat their “mindless habits” or have to play a “mimicry of life.”

The purpose of this poem is to declare a new future for the country of India and the Indian people. The speaker , likely Tagore himself, sees a future in which the Indian people are not subjugated to the word of others and no longer play the role of puppets.

The speaker is someone who has a great deal of affection for their country and their people. Commonly, this speaker is considered to be the poet himself. However, their identity is not important to understanding the broader implications of the poem. Readers can explore this piece without explicitly understanding the speaker as a single person.

Freedom, Tagore says, is the ability to choose one’s own destiny. Freedom is only possible when his people no longer have to bend their heads or their backs to oppression or labor. It’s freedom when the people he’s speaking to in this poem are able to act on their own desires and wills.

This poem was written sometime in the late 19th century, likely when the poet was in his 20s. But, there is no specific date on record for its composition.

Similar Poetry

Readers who enjoyed this poem should also consider reading some other Rabindranath Tagore poems . For example:

‘ Let Me Not Forget ’ – speaks on one man’s personal loss and determination to never again be fully happy, no matter what his life brings.
‘ The Gardener XLI: Peace, My Heart ’ – features a depiction of death that is peaceful and completely natural.
‘ Unending Love ’ – a beautiful love poem. It taps on the themes of spiritual love and immortality.

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Baldwin, Emma. "Freedom by Rabindranath Tagore". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/rabindranath-tagore/freedom/ . Accessed 8 June 2024.

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aaj ik aur baras biit gayā us ke baġhair

jis ke hote hue hote the zamāne mere

Rabindranath Tagore

1861 - 1941 | Kolkata , India

Bengali polymath who was active as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the age of Bengal Renaissance. The only Indian-origin author to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

Index of Books 184653

Agriculture 67 Article Collection 154 Astrology 21 Autobiography 405 Banned Books 15 Bibliography 55 Biography 2539 Calligraphy 11 Catalogue / Index 453 Children's Literature 1788 Catalogue / Index 6 Dastaan 6 Drama 33 Entertainment 13 Geet 8 General Knowledge 17 Geography 1 History 10 Islamiyaat 37 Learning Resources 48 Magazines 57 Mathematics 31 Medicine 7 Moral and Ethical 39 Nazm 158 Novel 49 Personality 99 Pratham Books 56 Psychological 5 Quatrain 1 Research And Criticism 24 Science 34 Story 583 Text Books 103 Translation 54 Upbringing And Nourishment 33 Comments 13 Communal Harmony 23 Constitution 32 Dastarkhwan 20 Diary 67 Dictionary 537 Directory 11 Drama 887 Drama History & Criticism 30 Historical 35 Romantic 26 Social 38 Economics 127 Education 281 Encyclopedia 63 Entertainment 11 Environment 22 Essays & Profiles 1069 Essays 830 Profiles 174 Feminism 72 Fiction 1329 Dastaan 363 Moral and Ethical 23 Novel 34 Short Stories 222 Film Songs 782 Folk Song 15 Folk tales 21 Freedom Movement 139 Geography 67 Health 37 General Health 21 Infant health / Gynaecology 6 Hikayaat 84 Hinduism 4 History 2584 Cultural History 240 History Of Literature 121 Indian 762 Islamic History 550 World 276 Humorous 557 Humorous History & Criticism 29 poetry 71 Prose 285 Hunting's 21 Idioms 42 Interviews 51 Islamiyat 601 Journalism 179 Column 6 kavita 28 Language & Literature 1568 Aestheticism 9 Criticism 104 History 296 IntiKhab 134 Language 509 Tazkira 51 Lateefe 45 Law 160 Lectures 510 Letters 615 History & Criticism 35 Life Style 19 General Information 12 Linguistics 152 Logic 50 Manuscript 241 Mathematics 73 Medicine 589 Ayurveda 28 Homeopathy 15 Surgery 10 Tibb-e-Unani 205 Memoir 65 Monograph 181 Moral and Ethical 312 Movements 260 Literary movements 66 political movements 155 Religious Movements 42 Music 58 Myths 2 Novel 3651 Biographical 42 Detective 156 Historical 220 History & Criticism 6 Humorous 20 Moral and Ethical 163 Psychological 5 Romantic 493 Social 531 Novella 59 Others 505 Parody 7 Philosophy 185 Physics 3 Political 213 India 43 world 38 Prosody 134 Prostitute 17 Psychology 20 Publications Of Munshi Naval Kishore 1419 Religions 2252 Buddhism 23 Christianity 25 Comparative Study 3 Hindu-mat 46 Islamiyat 2079 Sikhism 58 Remnants 12 Reportage 72 Research & Criticism 5087 Aestheticism 18 Articles / Papers 1039 Autobiography 11 Biography 101 Children's Literature 20 Compiled 166 Criticism 1346 Dastaan 21 Dictionary 7 Drama 31 Essays 53 Fiction 198 Ghazal 46 History 18 Idioms 5 Iqbaliyat 130 Lectures 7 Letters 8 Magazines 2 Marsiya 54 Masnavi 29 Naat 22 Nazm 24 Novel 91 Poetry 911 Prose 39 Qasida 12 Quatrain 10 Rekhti 1 Reportage 7 Research 639 Research Methodology 11 Short-story 87 Tazkira 13 Translation 9 Travelogue 13 Reviews 77 satire 9 Science 169 Sexology 28 Short-story 2340 Horror fiction 10 Symbolic / Artistic Stories 78 Sketch Writing 4 Sketches 235 Sketches: History & Criticism 60 Social issues 74 Custums 5 Sociology 14 Story 37 Story Collection 32 Sufism / Mystic 1545 Chishtiya 110 Discourses 189 Naqshbandiya 59 Philosophy of Sufism 32 Poetry 88 Qadiriyya 50 Research / criticism 38 sama and others terminology's 43 Suhrawardiyya 19 Tazkira 63 Syllabus 83 Talks 27 Tazkira 904 Text Books 432 Criticism 78 Fiction 54 History 13 Non Fiction 50 Poetry 30 Translation 3803 Autobiography 54 Biography 153 Catalogue / Index 4 Chemistry 2 Children's Literature 73 Constitution 11 Critique / Research 26 Dastaan 51 Diary 3 Doha 2 Drama 128 Economics 35 Epics 55 Essays 31 Geography 18 Hikayaat 21 History 392 Humorous 5 Huntings 1 Islamiyat 181 Law 15 Lecture 40 Letter 53 Medicine 59 Notebook / Dairy 3 Novel 566 Philosophy 80 Poetry 292 Political 12 Psychology 14 Science 35 Short Story 189 Social issues 10 Sufism / Mystic 105 Translation: History & Criticism 7 Travelogue 36 Travelogue 466 Wars 29 Women's writings 6893 Autobiography 41 Biography 114 Children's literature 26 Compilation 229 Criticism 304 Drama 34 Feminism 13 Novel 614 Poetry 325 Prose 38 Stories 376 Travelogue 18 Women's Translations 118
University Urdu Syllabus
Index of Authors
E-Books by Contributor

Bait Bazi 12
Catalogue / Index 5
Couplets 62
Deewan 1343
Exegesis 148
Humorous 38
Intikhab 1412
Keh mukarni 7
Kulliyat 643
Majmua 4049
Marsiya 337
Masnavi 706
Musaddas 47
Qasiida 152
Qit'a 53
Quatrain 264
Quintuple 18
Remainders 27
shahr-Ashob, Hajw, Zatal Nama 13
Tareekh-Goi 21
Translation 78
Hindi & English Books

Short story 4

Translated poetry 6, kabuli wala, naghma-e-tagore, agar tire lab nahii.n hile.nge, na.ii baarish.

Aalami Shair

Anar Kali Begam

Andhere Mein

Arz-e-Naghma

Aur Doosre Afsane

Bachon Ke Rabindranath Tagore

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Rabindranath Tagore - Biographical

Rabindranath Tagore

Biographical.

R abindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads . He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.

Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.

Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. Tagore’s major plays are Raja (1910) [ The King of the Dark Chamber ], Dakghar (1912) [ The Post Office ], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [ Red Oleanders ]. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [ The Home and the World ], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.

Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

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Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Indian Poet and Writer

February 21, 2017

Posted by: Peter Armenti

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The following cross-post was written by Nuzhat Khatoon, South Asia Specialist, Asian Division. It originally appeared on the 4 Corners of the World blog.

My Recollections of Rabindranath Tagore’s Works

Rabindranath Tagore, three-quarter-length portrait, seated, facing right, c. 1917. Prints and Photographs Division.

My main recollection of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) lies not in his poetry, music, dramas, novels, or paintings, but rather with his “Jana Gana Mana” (Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People), India’s national anthem. When I was a free-spirited little girl, probably in third grade, I remember school started every day with everyone singing this song. I also remember singing it in chorus on other occasions like Indian Republic Day , which honors the adoption of the country’s constitution on January 26, 1950. Sixty-eight years later, Tagore’s national anthem has not lost its charm and popularity. It still warms the hearts of millions and millions of Indians both in India and abroad.

Another one of my recollections is watching Tagore’s plays staged in my school’s auditorium. His dance dramas, such as “ Chitrangada ” and “ Chandalika ,” showcased his interest in different types of stories. For example, Tagore’s 1892 work “Chitrangada” is inspired by a story in the Hindu epic “Mahabharata.” The title character is the daughter of the king of Manipura and the wife of the great warrior Arjuna. Chitrangada and Arjuna meet during the latter’s expedition to Manipura. Arjuna asks the king for her hand in marriage, and the king agrees on the condition that Arjuna will stay with his wife in Manipura and that their children will be the heirs to the kingdom. Arjuna agrees to wed the princess, and eventually, their son Babruvahana is born to them.

In 1938, Tagore wrote “Chandalika,” a story that touches on the sensitive subject of the caste system in Hindu society. This work’s message is that all human beings are equal regardless of their social status, and it comes through the tale of a young girl, Prakriti, who is born to an “untouchable” caste, the Chandalis. Because of her caste, Prakriti suffers terrible discrimination and injustice. Even the vendors in her village shun her. One day, she happens to meet a Buddhist monk named Ananda, who approaches her and asks for water. At first, she refuses because she believes that water from a low-caste person’s hands is polluted, and that by offering it she would be committing a religious offense. But Ananda teaches her that all human beings are equal and that the difference between upper and lower castes is the product of an unjust society. Convinced by the monk’s kind words, Prakriti ultimately serves him water, an action that gives her joy and self-confidence.

Rabindranath Tagore was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, one of the founders of the 19th-century Hindu religious reform movement, the Brahmo Samaj. Although he had the opportunity for formal schooling in England, the young Rabindranath had little interest in formal education and returned to India before finishing his education abroad. At home, his father arranged for private tutoring, the flexible pace of which appealed much more to him than the school’s rigid curriculum. During this time, his intellectual horizon expanded and he developed a wide range of interests, especially in the arts.

In addition, Rabindranath grew up in a very musical environment. His elder brother Jyotirindranath used to experiment with different musical traditions, which exposed Rabindranath to classical, folk, devotional, and other genres of music. In his more than 2,000 compositions, he expresses all manner and category of human emotion. It is this range that makes his music appealing to everyone – old and young, rich and poor.

Another important dimension of Rabindranath Tagore’s legacy is his involvement with Shantiniketan, a town in Birbhum District in what is today the state of West Bengal in eastern India. After his father purchased the land in 1862, it was used for an ashram, a spiritual center for meditation, but Tagore eventually developed it into Vishva Bharati University, which – as its name indicates – integrated knowledge from all over the world ( vishva ) with the unique wisdom and spirit of India ( bharati ). The university also embodied its founder’s philosophy of education and social harmony. With his burgeoning interest in social reform in his later years, Tagore reached out to the poor and preached the principles of freedom and cooperation among all people regardless of caste and creed. In this respect, he was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings. Both had great respect for one another, and Gandhi visited Shantiniketan on four separate occasions – twice with his wife Kasturba and twice alone.

Tagore’s life also included its share of grief. In 1902, his wife Mrinalini Devi passed away. Then, in succession, he lost his younger daughter, son and loving father. He was disconsolate for a long time. In his works, one can see the combination of personal sorrow and commentary on social and political upheavals in colonial Bengal in the early twentieth century:

I saw the suicidal madness of the modern age And saw in its body The ironical distortion of ugliness (“ Rabindranath Tagore: a 125th birth anniversary volume ,” Calcutta : Govt. of West Bengal, Dept. of Information & Cultural Affairs, 1988.)

Tagore, the Poet

Tagore wrote his first verse when he was only eight years old. Like a poet born to compose, verses subsequently poured naturally from his pen. With the publications of “Sandhya Sangit” (Evening Songs) in 1882 and “Prabhat Sangit” (Morning Songs) in 1883 Rabindranath secured his place among the most distinguished poets of his era. His interest in the observation of ordinary people’s lives in ordinary situations found expression in poems published under the title “Chhabi O Gan” (Pictures and Songs).

Sweet is this world, I wish ne’er to depart, I yearn for a dwelling-place in humanity’s heart. (“ Rabindranath Tagore, the singer and his song ,” Reba Som, New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, c2009.)

In 1881 at the age of twenty, Tagore wrote his first dramatic piece “Valmiki Pratibha” (The Genius of Valmiki), which was shown at Tagore’s mansion in Calcutta. His dramas are so popular today that they are still staged in theaters in India and Bangladesh.

Detail of a page in The New York Times (November 19, 1916) [https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn78004456/1916-11-19/ed-1/?sp=6&loclr=blogint] reports: “Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali Poet and Nobel Prize Winner, Feeding the Pigeons at the San Diego Exposition Just Before Leaving for New York.”

Every Journey Is a Pilgrimage

Tagore enjoyed traveling and made many friends abroad. He traveled all over Europe and Asia, including England, France, Italy, Russia, China, and Japan. He celebrated his sixtieth birthday in Germany. In Stockholm, the Swedish Academy paid him rich tribute. At the personal invitation of the king Reza Shah Pahlavi, Tagore visited Persia, in April and May of 1932, and paid homage in the city of Shiraz to two great masters of Persian poetry, Hafiz (1320-1389) and Saadi (1184-1283).

Tagore’s last pilgrimage ended on August 7, 1941. He was 80 years old. His poem “A Farewell” speaks poignantly to the themes of death and departure:

Look out once more with tired eyes, and see How, where the sun has set, the sea and sky Merge in the darkness, then will you see the trace Of shining light left by my parting gaze. (“ Rabindranath Tagore : selected poems ,” New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2004.)

Even though Tagore embarked upon his last voyage, his music, poetry, and national anthem will keep his memory alive for generations to come. Indeed, Rabindranath is not only one of the preeminent literary geniuses of Bengal and India but also all of South Asia.

Rabindranath Tagore after his arrival in Japan in May 1916. Prints of Photographs Division. [https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.22224/?loclr=blogint]

The Asian Division’s South Asian collection holds many works by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, as well as a number of contemporary scholarly publications on his life and legacy. Here are a few titles for further reading:

“ Rabindranathera Galpaguccha ” (1970, first published in 1900)

“ Ghare Baire ” (The Home and the World, 1950, first published in 1916)

“ Gora ” (Fair-Skinned, 1951, first published in 1910)

Sudhakar Chattopadhyay’s “ Rabindranatha o bharatiya sahitya ” (Rabindranath and Indian Literature, 1967)

Syed Abul Maksud’s “ Rabindranathera dharmatattva o darshana ” (Rabindranath’s Theology and Philosophy, 2013)

Samit Kar’s “ Samya, samajatattva, o Rabindranatha: Rabindra racanara samajatattvika anveshana ” (Equality, Sociology, and Rabindranatha: A Sociological Exploration of Rabindranath Tagore’s Compositions, 2013)

Comments (16)

Need your guidance, I happened to read the below line somewhere. Which poetry / song is it a part of? Kindly advise

nabo songsar srishtir bhar notoshire niyo dujone milonanjoli jugol hiyar diyo bidhatar pujone kolyandip jalaye bhavane bishere koro atithi manober prem jagayo jibone punyo premer protiti

Thanks for your question, Anusha. I have added it to the Library’s Ask a Librarian system and referred it to our Asian Reading Room , whose staff are best able to answer it. You’ll receive a response through email within five business days.

Rabindranath was a great poet. He composed 4thousand poems,about 2thousand songs ,115 short stories, wrote some famous novels and more than 36 dramas .He wrote also a lot of essays. His noted collection of poetry is Golden Boat,Manasi,Chitra,Kheya, Geetanjali, Balaka and Punascha. Choker Bali ,Home and the aboard, Sheser Kovita are all great novels. Rabindranath once told my creation in course of time might be out of people concerns, but my songs never go futile. My songs are immortal.

The poet and pauper drama by rabindranath tagor Explaination in briefly

Dear Mr. Rathod,

I’ve added your question into our Ask a Librarian system . I will be in touch with you soon with a more complete response.

Best wishes,

When Tagore was being taken for cremation, a famous poet of that time wrote a poem then and there lamenting Tagore’s death. Can you refer me the poem and the poet?

In this difficult times the tribute by Library of Congress is praise-worthy. Rabindranath Tagore was a multifaceted genious – poet, lyricist, composer, essayist, painter, dramatist and actor. Also he was a great educationist and established a university with truly world in mind. He also took proactive initiative for rural upliftment and established Sriniketan to help farmers and artisans. I hope someday people of the whole world will realise what a great man he was and try to follow his advice. Soon it occurs the world will advance for a better future.

Which poetry or song it is part of!? Can you advise?

Dear Aindrila,

I have added your question to the Library’s Ask a Librarian system and referred it to our Asian Reading Room , whose staff are best able to answer it. You’ll receive a response through email from staff in the Asian Reading Room.

I want to know about his writing style in kabuliwala story!

Very nice to about the rabindranath tagore thank you so much to help me and thankful all to apply this thinking thank you so much these about of rabindranath tagore its help all of us who people thinking that the about rabindranath tagore it’s help this about of rabindranath tagore.

Need your guidence i would like to work on rabindranath tagore for dissertation but iam really confused about the topic it would be so helpful if u suggest me the topic.what would be the most impactful or fascinating topic about Rabindranath tagore that would really help me out to work on my dissertation

Dear Sonam,

I have added your inquiry to the Library’s Ask a Librarian service and referred to to our Asian Reading Room for response.

I chanced upon these linez in the above article:

“Sweet is this world, I wish ne’er to depart, I yearn for a dwelling-place in humanity’s heart.”

I would like to know the name of this poem. Also, what was the first poem written by Tagore?

I’ve added your questions into our Ask a Librarian system and referred them to staff in our Asian Division. I hope that they will be in touch with you soon with answers to them.

Knowing Rabindranath Tagore never can be enough. Get to know many unknown things about Rabindranath Tagore from your blog.

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Rabindranath Tagore Essay

Rabindranath Tagore Essay for Kids and Students

Rabindranath Tagore was one of the most legendary Indian poets and novelists of all times. He was an eminent philosopher, patriot and rationalist. He started his journey as a writer at a very young age. He was popularly referred to as “Gurudev” by everyone. In this article, we shall look into Rabindranath Tagore essay for kids.

Rabindranath Tagore was a popular personality who wrote several poems and short stories. He was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for his literary works. He was actively involved in politics and totally supported the Indian nationalists’ fight against the British rule. He was a great motivator and patriot who strongly supported India’s struggle for Independence. Click on the link given below to download Rabindranath Tagore essay PDF provided in a printable format.

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Rabindranath tagore essay in english.

“Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 at Jorasanko, Calcutta to a Bengali Brahmin family with ancestral roots at Burdwan and Jessore districts. Later his house, Jorasanko Thakur Bari became a part of the Rabindra Bharati University campus. He was the son of Debendranath Tagore, a religious reformer and Sarada Devi and belonged to one of the renowned families that played a major role during the Bengal Renaissance.

Rabindranath Tagore was an outstanding poet, philosopher, playwright, dramatist, composer, social reformer and a talented painter. He completed his higher education in England. He began writing poems and short stories from a tender age and wrote dramatic pieces such as Valmiki Pratibha.

Rabindranath’s best drama was Visarjan and his first short story was Bhikarini. He later formed a huge collection of 84 short stories called Galpaguchchha during the period 1891-1895.

Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his collection of beautiful poetry, Gitanjali. He was India’s first Nobel Laureate who created other significant poetry such as Sonar Tori, Manasi and Balaka. Apart from poetry and dramas, Tagore held the mighty reputation of writing more than two thousand songs, which are now popularly known as “Rabindra Sangeet”. His songs reflect the beautiful Indian culture.

Tagore was also very fond of drawing and painting. He drew several sketches, doodles and paintings which were put up in exhibitions at Paris and London. He therefore reshaped Bengali literature, art and music with a blend of Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Tagore despised the rote learning method and conceived a new kind of university and named it Visva Bharati which was a connecting link between India and the world. He laid the foundation stone of Visva Bharati on 24th December 1918 at Santiniketan. He taught the students and contributed his Nobel Prize money towards the development of the university.

In 1919, Rabindranath Tagore repudiated his knighthood to protest the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Tagore wrote some patriotic and politically charged songs which gained mass appeal. The national anthem of India – Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh – Amar Shonar Bangla were Tagore’s finest compositions depicting his patriotic nature.

Rabindranath Tagore was popularly known as “Gurudev”, “Kobiguru” and “Biswakobi” by the people of India. He was a multi-talented personality and well-known for his noteworthy contribution to the field of literature, art, politics and music. The great poet, playwright and philosopher breathed his last on 7th August 1941 at his ancestral residence in Jorasanko.”

We hope the essay about Rabindranath Tagore will help students to get an insight into the life and works of this eminent personality. These few lines on Rabindranath Tagore will enlighten kids about the notable personality and help them to write a simple yet impressive essay on the topic. We have included all the essential details about his family, literary works, contributions in the field of art, music, literature and politics, etc.

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Rabindranath Tagore Essay

Rabindranath Tagore was a polymath from India whose knowledge expanded over a wide number of areas including music, literature, art etc. Born in West Bengal on 7 th May 1861, Tagore started writing poetry at an early age of eight. Tagore strongly denounced the British Raj and supported Indian Nationalists. Tagore was critical of Gandhi activism; however, he played a significant role in resolving the dispute between Gandhi and Ambedkar on the dispute over separate electorates for the untouchables.

Long and Short Essay on Rabindranath Tagore in English

We have provided below short and long essay on Rabindranath Tagore in English for your information and knowledge.

These lines have been written in simple and effective English language to make them easily memorable and presentable when needed.

After going through these Rabindranath Tagore essay you will know about the life and achievements of Rabindranath Tagore and his contribution to the Indian freedom struggle.

The essays will be helpful in your school/college events and essay writing or speech giving competitions. Students can select any of the essays given below:

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 1 (100 words)

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Indian poet. He was born on 7 th of May in 1861 at Jorasanka, Kolkata. His parents name was Maharsi Debendranath Tagore (father) and Sarada Devi (mother).

He took his education at home under private teachers for various subjects. He started writing poems in his very early age. He is still a famous poet as he wrote thousands of poems, short stories, songs, essays, dramas, etc. Both, he and his works are famous all around the world. He became the first Indian who received the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his great writing named “Gitanjali”. He was also a philosopher, a painter, and a great patriot who composed our National Anthem titled as, “Jana Gana Mana”.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 2 (150 words)

Rabindranath Tagore was a great poet, patriot, philosopher, humanist, and painter. He was born in Jorasanka, Calcutta on 7 th of May in 1861 in his ancestral home to the Maharsi Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. He was 14 th child of his parents however different from others. He got his proper education and knowledge about various subjects at home by the private teachers. He was very young when started writing poems, some of them were published in the periodicals.

He went to England for his higher education but was not satisfied by the traditional system of education there. He returned to India and opened his own school named Santiniketan in Bolpur, Birbhum, Bengal. This school later became a college and then a university (Visva-Bharati). He was honored with the Nobel Prize for ‘Gitanjali’ in 1913. He was also awarded with Knighthood by the British Crown however he returned as a mark of protest against massacre in Jallianwalabagh.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 3 (200 words)

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Indian poet and the youngest son of his parents. He was a leader of Brahmo Samaj in nineteenth-century, Bengal. He took his early education at home however higher education in England. He went to England at his seventeen for his formal schooling however could not complete. His interest and close touch with the common humanity draw his attention towards the country to do some social reforms. Then he started a school at Santiniketan where he followed the Upanishadic ideals of education.

He also involved himself in the Indian nationalist movement and followed his own non-sentimental and visionary ways. Gandhi Ji was a devoted friend of him. His immense love towards the country was seen when he returned the honor given by British Government in 1915 as a protest against British policies in the country.

He was a good writer and get success in writing in his native Bengal. His continuous success in writing made him able to become a famous voice of India’s spiritual heritage. Some of his odd volumes of poetry are like Manasi, Sonar Tari, Gitanjali, Gitimalya, Balaka, etc. Besides poetries, he was also famous in writing dance dramas, musical dramas, essays, travel diaries, autobiographies, etc.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 4 (250 words)

Rabindranath Tagore was also known as Rabindranath Thakur and more popularly as Gurudev. He was a great Indian poet who has given many famous writings to the country. Undoubtedly, he was a greatest poet after Kalidas. Now, he is well known all over the world as a greatest Indian poets and writers of all ages.

He was born in a rich and cultured family in Jorasanko, Kolkata on 7 th of May in 1861 to the Maharshi Debendranath Tagore (father) and Sarada Devi (mother). He lost his mother at his fourteen in 1875. He developed the interest of writing poems in his early age. He was also a painter, a philosopher, a patriot, an educationist, a novelist, a singer, an essayist, a story writer, and a constructive worker.

His great writings in the form of novels and short stories indicate his wisdom, deep experience and understanding about human character. He was a poet who has given a nice national anthem “Jan Gana Mana”. Some of his important works are “Geetanjali”, “Amar Shonar Bangla”, “Ghare-Baire”, “Rabindra Sangeet”, etc. He has been awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his great English version writing of “Geetanjali”.

He was the first Indian and first Asian to get this award. He was the founder of Vishwabharati University at Santiniketan in 1902. His endless love towards his country and countrymen forced him to reject “Knighthood”, an award given by the British government, in 1919 in a protest against Jallianwala Bagh massacre. His great writings still inspire and encourage people of the country.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 5 (300 words)

Rabindranath Tagore was a famous Indian poet who popularly known as Gurudev. He was born in Kolkata on 7 th of May in 1861 in a rich and cultural family. His parents were Maharishi Debendranath (father) and Sharda Devi (mother). He was very much interested in writing poem from his childhood. Together with being a great poet, he was also a humanist, patriot, painter, novelist, story-writer, educationist and philosopher. He was a cultural ambassador for the country who spread the knowledge of Indian culture all around the world. He was a talented and genius child of his time who did great works. He was like a rising sun in the field of poem writing.

He had shown well the mental and moral spirit of the people through his writings in poem or stories forms. His writings have also been proved to be path-breaking and revolutionary even for today’s people. He was full of sorrow because of the massacre tragedy at Jalianwala Bagh in which many innocent people including women and children were killed on 13 th of April in 1919 at Amritsar by the General Dyer and his soldiers.

He was a great poet however a patriot too who always believed in oneness of life and its expression. Through his writings, he tried his best to bring people much closer to unite them in order to maintain the love, peace, and brotherhood. He had described well about love and harmony through his poetry and stories. His whole life also provides the clear view of love and harmony to each other. His devotion towards his country is shown by the following statement, “My country that is forever India, the country of my forefathers, the country of my children, my country has given me life and strength.” And again, “I shall be born in India again.

Rabindranath Tagore Essay 6 (400 words)

Rabindranath Tagore, a great Indian poet, was born on 7 th of May in 1861 at Calcutta, India to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. He was born in a rich and cultural Brahmin family. He took his early education at home under private teachers and never attended school however went to England for higher studies. He started writing poems at his early age of eight. His poetry was published under the pseudonym Bhanushingho (Sun Lion) when he was just sixteen. He went to England in 1878 to study law however returned India before completing to pursue the career as a poet and writer.

He translated his work Geetanjali into English during the long sea journey to England. He was awarded with the Nobel Prize for literature within the year his Geetanjali was published. He has mentioned the mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian culture in his writing for which a non-westerner was honored with prestigious award first time. Together with being a renowned poet, he was also a genius, writer, novelist, visual artist, composer, playwright, and a philosopher. He knew well how to command over language while writing poem or stories. He was a good philosopher through which he influenced a huge range of Indian people during the freedom struggle.

His contribution towards the Indian literature is very vast and unforgettable. Two of the songs from his Rabindrasangeet are more famous as they have been national anthem of two countries such as “Amar Shonary Bangla” (national anthem of Bangladesh) and “Jana Gana Mana” (national anthem of India). His creative writings, whether in the form of poem or stories, are unchallenged even today. Perhaps he was the first who bridge the gap between west and east through his effective writings.

Another composition of him was Puravi in which he mentioned Evening Songs and Morning Songs under many subjects like social, moral, cultural, religious, political, etc. Manasi was written by him in 1890 in which he collected some social and poetical poems. Most of his writings were based on the life of people of Bengal. Another writing named Galpaguccha was a collection of stories based on the poverty, backwardness, and illiteracy of the Indian people.

Other poetry collections are like Sonar Tari, Kalpana, Chitra, Naivedya, etc and novels are like Gora, Chitrangda and Malini, Binodini and Nauka Dubai, Raja and Rani, etc. He was very religious and spiritual man which helped him a lot in the days of crisis. He was a great educationist thus he founded an abode of peace, a unique university named Santiniketan. He died on 7 th of August in 1941 in Kolkata before seeing the India’s independence.

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Sex, Sedition & Storytelling, 14th Annual Tagore Lecture - Aruni Kashyap (April 12, 2024)

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Lecture by Aruni Kashyap (English and Creative Writing, University of Georgia)Aruni Kashyap’s career as a writer, editor, translator, and academic has articulated the tension between the state and the individual, the public and the private, the fragility of democracy, and how storytelling is a politically charged engagement with society. Stories are at the heart of human rights work. By reading reports, fiction, poems, and essays about others, we are moved to take democratic action. This talk will discuss Kashyap’s journey as a writer from Assam and share how growing up under the duress of state violence has shaped the literature of his home state. By drawing on the works of internationally renowned and critically acclaimed writers such as Indira Goswami and much lesser-known writers, assassinated writers, and incarcerated writers, Kashyap will discuss how insurgency and state violence have shaped not only Assamese literature but also South Asian Literature and is re-shaping global perceptions about Indian Literature.Aruni Kashyap is the author of "His Father’s Disease: Stories" and the novel "The House With a Thousand Stories." Along with editing a collection of stories called "How to Tell the Story of an Insurgency," he has also translated two novels from Assamese to English, published by Zubaan Books and Penguin Random House. Recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Faculty Research Grants in the Humanities and Arts Program, Arts Lab Faculty Fellowship, and the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for Creative Writing to the University of Edinburgh, his poetry collection, "There is No Good Time for Bad News" was nominated for the 58th Georgia Author of the Year Awards 2022, a finalist for the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and Four Way Books Levis Award in Poetry. His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Catapult, Bitch Media, The Boston Review, Electric Literature, The Oxford Anthology of Writings from Northeast, The Keny

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Where The Mind Is Without Fear

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Download Where The Mind is Without Fear Full Poem - PDF

Where The Mind Is Without Fear Poem – by Rabindranath Tagore (Text-Version)

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.

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DOI: 10.33545/26648717.2024.v6.i1d.187
Corpus ID: 270135072

Critical appreciation of Rabindranath Tagore and his literary contribution: A review

Aparupa Chakraborty , Santanu Tewari
Published in International journal of… 1 January 2024

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Rabindranath Tagore Essay
Rabindranath Tagore was writing at a time when the entire country was thrown into the fever of the freedom struggle and he plunged with deep passion into the struggle. He took part in the freedom movements by opening a Swadeshi shop selling only Indian goods and by rejecting foreign goods. He also composed many patriotic songs and articles ...
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore FRAS (/ r ə ˈ b ɪ n d r ə n ɑː t t æ ˈ ɡ ɔːr / ⓘ; pronounced [roˈbindɾonatʰ ˈʈʰakuɾ]; 7 May 1861 - 7 August 1941) was a Bengali poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the age of Bengal Renaissance. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and ...
Rabindranath Tagore
On his 70th birthday, in an address delivered at the university he founded in 1918, Rabindranath Tagore said: "I have, it is true, engaged myself in a series of activities. But the innermost me is not to be found in any of these. At the end of the journey I am able to see, a little more clearly, the orb of my life. Looking back, the only thing of which I feel certain is that I am a poet (ami ...
Tagore and his India
Rabindranath Tagore, who died in 1941 at the age of eighty, is a towering figure in the millennium-old literature of Bengal. Anyone who becomes familiar with this large and flourishing tradition will be impressed by the power of Tagore's presence in Bangladesh and in India. His poetry as well as his novels, short stories, and essays are very ...
Tagore's Essays and Short Stories: Exploring the Lyrical Prose of a
Tagore's essays and short stories are a testament to his vast intellectual depth and emotional range. From thought-provoking philosophical discourses to ... Rabindranath Tagore, one of India's most renowned literary figures, continues to inspire readers across generations with his timeless writings. While he is best known for his poetry and ...
Rabindranath Tagore Essay for Students and Children
500+ Words Essay on Rabindranath Tagore. Essay on Rabindranath Tagore: Rabindranath Tagore was a legendary Indian poet. Furthermore, he was also a great philosopher, patriot, painter, and humanist. People often made use of the word Gurudev with regard to him. This exceptional personality was born on the 7th of May in 1861 at Calcutta.
Rabindranath Tagore Analysis
An analysis of Tagore's political writing which puts him in the context of India's move in the 1920's toward nationalism. This, in turn, illuminates some of the philosophy and themes in his ...
13
Rabindranath Tagore's essay on world literature, Viśvasāhitya (1907), is important not just because of the political and historical circumstances of its production, but because it advocates a method of 'doing' world literature that potentially frees us from the conundrums besetting the methods used so far if scholars writing on the essay were to read it for what it actually says.
Rabindranath Tagore Critical Essays
Tagore's last dance drama began in the form of a poem written in 1899, metamorphosed into a dance drama in 1936, and was transformed a second time in 1939 to its present fully developed shape.
Selected Writings on Literature and Language
Books. Selected Writings on Literature and Language. Rabindranath Tagore, Sukanta Chaudhuri. Oxford University Press, 2001 - Foreign Language Study - 413 pages. This collection presents new translations of Tagore's provocative critical writings, cornerstones of modern Bengali criticism. The essays span his entire career and invoke his lifelong ...
Rabindranath Tagore
In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to manage his family's estates at Shilaidah and Shazadpur for 10 years. There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (the main channel of the Ganges River), in close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for them became the keynote of much of his later writing.Most of his finest short stories, which examine "humble ...
Rabindranath Tagore World Literature Analysis
When Tagore mentioned his admiration for Vaishnava poetry in an essay published in 1912, undoubtedly he had in mind the Gita Govinda, a long poem written in the twelfth century by the Bengali poet ...
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore's writing is deeply rooted in both Indian and Western learning traditions. Apart from fiction in the form of poetry, songs, stories, and dramas, it also includes portrayals of common people's lives, literary criticism, philosophy, and social issues. Tagore originally wrote in Bengali, but later reached a broad audience in ...
Freedom by Rabindranath Tagore (Poem + Analysis)
Summary. 'Freedom' by Rabindranath Tagore is a beautiful poem directed to the people of the poet's home country - India. This powerful poem begins with the speaker telling his listener, the people of India, and the country as a whole, that he is going to claim freedom for them. It is the freedom that's going to allow them to escape ...
All writings of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore collection of short stories, articles, and ebooks in Urdu, Hindi & English. Read more about Rabindranath Tagore and access their famous audio, video, and ebooks." ... Essays 52. Fiction 198. Ghazal 47. History 17. Idioms 5. Iqbaliyat 123. Lectures 6. Letters 8. Magazines 2. Marsiya 53. Masnavi 28. Naat 22. Nazm 23. Novel ...
Works of Rabindranath Tagore
The works of Rabindranath Tagore consist of poems, novels, short stories, dramas, paintings, drawings, and music that Bengali poet and Brahmo philosopher Rabindranath Tagore created over his lifetime. Tagore's literary reputation is disproportionately influenced by regard for his poetry; however, he also wrote novels, essays, short stories ...
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941. From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969. This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures.
List of works by Rabindranath Tagore
The Padma, the houseboat ("Bajra") of the Tagore family, at Shilaidaha Kuthibadi, where Tagore wrote many of his short stories and other works.Below is a chronological list of works by Rabindranath Tagore between 1877 and 1941. Tagore wrote most of his short stories, novels, drama, poems and songs in Bengali; later he translated some of them into English.
Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Indian Poet and Writer
The following cross-post was written by Nuzhat Khatoon, South Asia Specialist, Asian Division. It originally appeared on the 4 Corners of the World blog. My Recollections of Rabindranath Tagore's Works My main recollection of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) lies not in his poetry, music, dramas, novels, or paintings, but rather with his "Jana Gana Mana" (Thou …
Rabindranath Tagore Tagore, Rabindranath
Essays and criticism on Rabindranath Tagore - Tagore, Rabindranath. ... Many stories of Tagore written in the nineties are devoted to the theme of exploitation of women. In the most glaring manner ...
Crisis in Civilization (Essay by Rabindranath Tagore)
The essay 'Crisis in Civilization' was written by the Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore, who was fondly referred to as Gurudev, was born in Kolkata, West Bengal. Gurudev Tagore wrote this essay when he attained the age of 80, and nearing the end of his life. This was a turbulent year for the world, as the Second World War was raging in Europe, and the Individual Satyagraha ...
Rabindranath Tagore Essay in English for Kids with Free PDF Inside
Rabindranath Tagore was popularly known as "Gurudev", "Kobiguru" and "Biswakobi" by the people of India. He was a multi-talented personality and well-known for his noteworthy contribution to the field of literature, art, politics and music. The great poet, playwright and philosopher breathed his last on 7th August 1941 at his ...
Essay on Rabindranath Tagore for Children and Students
The essays will be helpful in your school/college events and essay writing or speech giving competitions. Students can select any of the essays given below: Rabindranath Tagore Essay 1 (100 words) Rabindranath Tagore was a great Indian poet. He was born on 7 th of May in 1861 at Jorasanka, Kolkata. His parents name was Maharsi Debendranath ...
Painting the soul: Rabindranath Tagore's artistic mystique
Here, we'll explore his eminence as a painter. On Wednesday, November 19, 1930, an exhibition showcasing Rabindranath Tagore's paintings debuted at the Fifty-six Street Gallery in Manhattan, New York. The poet, seated in a tall chair at the rear of the gallery, recounted his journey into painting to the assembled audience.
Sex, Sedition & Storytelling, 14th Annual Tagore Lecture
Lecture by Aruni Kashyap. Lecture by Aruni Kashyap (English and Creative Writing, University of Georgia)Aruni Kashyap's career as a writer, editor, translator, and academic has articulated the tension between the state and the individual, the public and the private, the fragility of democracy, and how storytelling is a politically charged engagement with society.
Where The Mind Is Without Fear Poem by Rabindranath Tagore ...
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. Experience Tagore's visionary poem Where The Mind Is Without Fear, advocating for freedom and enlightenment. Download the full poem in PDF format.
Critical appreciation of Rabindranath Tagore and his literary
DOI: 10.33545/26648717.2024.v6.i1d.187 Corpus ID: 270135072; Critical appreciation of Rabindranath Tagore and his literary contribution: A review @article{Chakraborty2024CriticalAO, title={Critical appreciation of Rabindranath Tagore and his literary contribution: A review}, author={Aparupa Chakraborty and Santanu Tewari}, journal={International Journal of Research in English}, year={2024 ...

Rabindranath Tagore Essay For Students And Children

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Tagore’s Essays and Short Stories: Exploring the Lyrical Prose of a Literary Maestro

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13 - Viśvasāhitya : Rabindranath Tagore’s Idea of World Literature

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