Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali

GURUDEV RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Gurudev, [] was an Indian Bengali polymath, Born in 1861 to an influential Bengali family. A poets poet, he is a maker of not only modern Indian Literature but also the modern Indian mind. He was a popular poet, novelist, musician, and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. and composer of songs.

TRAGOREs POETRY:PAINTINGS
Tagore also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting .His paintings were mostly done by embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs and his manuscripts had word layout with simple artistic form, including simple rhythmic designs.

COMPOSER OF TWO NATIONAL ANTHEMS

Tagore was perhaps the only litterateur who penned anthems of two countries: India and Bangladesh: Jana Gana Mana and Amar Shonar Bangla. The Indian national anthem has been recognized as the best in the world

He was Poet first of all . His poems are inseparable part of every Bengali family. His popular collections include Shonar Tori, Gitali etc. and above all Gitanjali. It is said that there isnt any emotions Rabindranath Tagore has not captured in his Poems

As the author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", and as the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Tagore was perhaps the most widely regarded Indian literary figure of all time. In 1915 he was knighted by the British King George V.

INTRODUCTION TO GITANJALI: W.B.YEATES

W.B. Yeats wrote the introduction to Gitanjali which was internationally recognized as a great literary work W.B. Yeats wrote: his poems have stirred my blood as nothing for years.

W.B.Yeats

RABINDRANATH:GITANJALI
(Gitanjali) is a collection of 103 English poems, largely translations, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore This volume became very famous in the West, and was widely translated. The word Gitanjali is a composed from "git", song, and "anjali", offering, and thus means "An offering of songs"; but the word for offering, anjoli, has a strong devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as "prayer offering of song".

GITANJALI, OR 'SONG OFFERINGS'

It is a collection of prose written with the Creator in mind, reflecting Tagore's wish to be united with the Creator. In his poetry one cannot miss his show of devotion and his pure love for the Creator, using various metaphorical subjects like flowers, rivers etc. One cannot but admire the beauty and art in it.

GITANJALIGITANJALI- A POET'S PRAYER

There is a distinct spiritual flavor to the verses of Gitanjali. The verses depict a poetic world which can only be dreamt of by most of us. There is an other-worldly feel to it. These words can only be uttered by a person who has transcended the physical world to explore what lies beyond it. Gitanjali labeled as religious poetry by critics.

GITANJALI:STYLE
All the poems are of short length probably around a page at the most, and in some cases around 2 pages. However the meaning they convey is simply tremendous. The author himself translated the original Bengali poems into English, giving it an authentic feel. Be it song or rain, nature or god, each poems display the simplicity of thoughts. However as said, its the content which forms the magic of the whole collection when read together.

OPENING OF GITANJALI
The very opening line of Gitanjali reflects the inner armory that the poet has experienced. The words are an outburst endeavoring to articulate the intense pleasure that the poetic experience has conferred upon him: "Thou hast made me endless such is thy pleasure" 'Thy' here becomes poetic inspiration itself and 'thou', the one who inspires. Anyone is bound to be ecstatic if his prayers are answered. We see the poet here starting at the peak of inspiration. In the life of every genuine poet such a moment does occur when he experiences endlessness.

GITANJALI: BHAKTI TRADITION

Gitanjali is reminiscent of a great Indian tradition called the Bhakti tradition. The Bhakti poets believed in surrender to the Godhead and in praising the name of the Lord in order to attain Mukthi or salvation.

GITANJALI: BHAKTI TRADITION

The title Gitanjali or Song Offerings is in itself reminiscent of the Bhakti tradition. Bhakti poets believed in worshipping God through music and dance The sonority, the theme of surrender, love for the Lord, praise for the Lord, anguish in separation from the Lord and the final realization of God within oneself, are all features of Bhakti poetry.

GITANJALI:TRANSLATION
Poetry is, of course, notoriously difficult to translate, and anyone who knows Tagore's poems in their original Bengali cannot feel satisfied with any of the translations (made with or without Yeast's help). Even the translations of his prose works suffer, to some extent, from distortion.

GITANGALI POEMS : WALL PAPER

GITANJALI:RELIGION
A book, where poetry and religion are the same thing. The idea of a direct, joyful, and totally fearless relationship with God can be found in many of Tagore's religious writings, including the poems of Gitanjali.

GITANJALI:THEMES
This collection of poems ranges a wide topic of themes, from mortality to nature to the depiction of celestial love, but the main theme that carries throughout is spiritual enlightenment. The speaker is seeking throughout the pathway to union with the spiritual or celestial being, and finds the path through his examination of earthly love and a union with nature.

REASONING IN FREEDOM
For Tagore it was of the highest importance that people be able to live, and reason, in freedom. His attitudes toward politics and culture, nationalism and internationalism, tradition and modernity, can all be seen in the light of this belief. Nothing, perhaps, expresses his values as clearly as the poems in Gitanjali.

TAGORE'S MYSTICAL QUEST

"The inner-seeking spirituality of India infused all of Tagore's writing. He wrote in many genres of the deep religious milieu of Hinduism. The values and core beliefs of the Hindu scriptures permeated his work." Says the Swami: "Rabindranath Tagore's philosophical and spiritual thoughts transcend all limits of language, culture, and nationality. In his writings, the poet and mystic takes us on a spiritual quest and gives us a glimpse of the infinite in the midst of the finite, unity at the heart of all diversity, and the Divine in all beings and things of the universe."

TAGORE'S SPIRITUAL BELIEFS

Tagore believed that "True knowledge is that which perceives the unity of all things in God." Tagore through his vast body of immortal literary works taught us that the universe is a manifestation of God, and that there is no unbridgeable gulf between our world and God's, and that God is the one who can provide the greatest love and joy.

GITANJALI:BUDDHISM
Influenced by Buddhism, the religion of the Bauls, Tagore derives several of his images from Baul folk songs. God, for the Bauls, was Love in its supreme form. The Bauls considered the transient human body as a temple of God.

GITANJALI:IMAGES
Flowers and rivers, the blowing of conch shells, the heavy rain of the Indian July, or the moods of that heart in union or in separation; and a man sitting in a boat upon a river playing lute, like one of those figures full of mysterious meaning is God Himself.

GITANJALI:MUSIC
Tagore writes music for his words, and one understands at every moment that he is so abundant, so spontaneous, so daring in his passion, so full of surprise, because he is doing something which has never seemed strange, unnatural, or in need of defense.

GITANJALI:RENOWN POEMS
Mind Without Fear Little Flute Moment's Indulgence Flower Leave This When Day Is Done Give Me Strength I Cannot Remember My Mother :

I Cannot Remember My Mother

I cannot remember my mother but when in the early autumn morning The smell of shiuli flowers floats in the air The scent of the morning service in the temple Comes to me as the scent of my mother. I cannot remember my mother Only sometimes in the midst of my play A tune seems to hover over my playthings, The tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking my cradle. I cannot remember my mother Only when from my bedroom window I send My eyes into the blue of the distant sky, I feel that the stillness of my mothers gaze on my face has spread all over the sky.

INTRODUCTION OF POEM
The parents of Rabindranath were very wealthy and had an active social life. Rabindranath had many brothers and sisters to take care of him. His mother passed away when he was still young.

I Cannot Remember My Mother

In this poem, Rabindranath, expresses his inability to actually recall the face or the features of his mother. But often a smell or a tune triggered off in him happy moments that he shared with his mother.

I Cannot Remember My Mother

So this poem I cannot remember my mother is about a child who does not remember his dead mother. But the child perhaps carries some associations of the mothers image in his mind.

IMAGERY
Poets express their feelings and ideas through five senses. Imagery is the device that they employ to create an image in the mind of the reader. This gives sensory impression and vividness to the poem.

THE TEMPLE
The scent of the morning service in the temple Comes to me as the scent of my mother.
His mother would string the flowers for the morning service at the temple and this remind him his mother.

When he looks at his playthings he seems to be able to hear a tune. Perhaps his mother often sang the same song a

VISUAL IMAGES
Hum while rocking my cradle
Perhaps his mother often sang the same song as she rocked him to sleep in the cradle. He recalls this tune as he touches his old toys.

AURAL IMAGES
The tune of some song that she used to hum
When he looks at his playthings he seems to be able to hear a tune

IMAGES RELATED TO SMELL

The smell of shiuli flowers as I cannot remember my mother
So the powerful fragrance of the Shiuli flowers would trigger off happy memories of his mother.

DISTANT SKY
My eyes into the blue of the distant sky, I feel that the stillness of my mothers gaze on my face
He can recall the quiet serene gaze of his mother when he looks at the vast expanse of the clear blue sky.

STYLE OF THE POEM

These simple lines of the poem eloquently reveal the deep seated emotional bonding that the poet had with his mother.

THANKS