Gitanjali [35] by Tagore

Gitanjali, a poem by Tagore

                                 
                                                    Originally written in Bengali and translated into English with the title, "Song Offerings". The English Gitanjali or Song Offerings is a collection of 103 English prose poems, which are Tagore's own English translations of his Bengali poems first published in November 1912 by the Indian Society of London with introduction given by William Butler Yeats . It contained translations of 53 poems from the original Bengali Gitanjali, as well as 50 other poems from his other works. The English Gitanjali became popular in the West, and was widely translated. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, largely for the English translation, Song Offering. It is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.

Tagore's lyricism                       
                                 Tagore’s lyrics are are characterized by the versatility of themes, bu it is the manifestation of divinity in all objects and the aspects of Universe. He composed lyrics on God, Love, Nature, Children, Love of the world and humanity and so on. No other poets even Sarojini Naidu who has been hailed as the Nightingale of India composed lyrics of such a vast variety of themes. In his lyrics, Tagore recaptures the theme and spirits of Indian philosophy and vividly creates the Indian atmosphere and the influence of Upanishads, The Vaishnava, Poets, The folk songs of Bengal and Kalidas. The Cardinal characteristics of Tagore’s lyrics are their Song like quality. They are meditative, reflective and remarkable for their spiritual character. Tagore’s English lyrics are mainly prose poems in which he uses the musical language and the incantatory tone.

Where the Mind is Without Fear: About the poem

                                “Where the mind is Without Fear” by Rabindranath Tagore is one of his vastly read and discussed poems.  It was originally composed in Bengali possibly in 1900 under the title “Prarthana”, meaning prayer. It appeared in the volume called ‘Naibedya’ in 1901. Later in 1911 Tagore himself translated the Bengali poem into English and that translation appeared as poem 35 in his Nobel winning anthology “Gitanjali” (Song Offerings).

 Analysis

‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’

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 lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

" Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; "

In the very first line, the poet prays to the Almighty that his countrymen should be free from any fear of oppression or forced compulsion. He wishes that everyone in his country has his head held high in dignity. In other words, according to him, in a truly free country every person should be fearless and should have a sense of self dignity..

" Where knowledge is free; "

In the second line of Where the Mind is Without Fear the poet dreams of a nation where knowledge would be free. Education should not be restricted to the upper class only but everybody should be allowed to acquire knowledge. Not only that, the children should learn freely from the nature and the world around them. They should not be forced memorize some predetermined lessons. And this is Tagore’s typical concept of education.

" Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls; "

In the next two lines, the poet emphasizes the unity of not only of his countrymen but also of the entire world. He thinks there should be no division among people based on their caste, creed, color, religion or other baseless superstitions. In other words, prejudices and superstitions should not divide the people in groups and break their unity.

" Where words come out from the depth of truth "

In line 5 of Where the Mind is Without Fear, Tagore wants a nation where people are truthful. They should not be superficial and words should come out from the depth of their hearts.

" Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; "

In the sixth line of the poem, the poet wants everyone to work hard to reach their goal, and in the long run to reach perfection. . He thinks they should not be tired by working. People should not be lazy and ignoring their work.

" Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habits; "

 In line 7, the poet compares ‘reason’ or logical thinking to a “clear stream'’ and in the next line 8, compares ‘dead habits’ or superstitious beliefs to a ‘dreary desert’. He wants the stream of reason not to lose its way into the desert of prejudices. In short, people’s thought should be monitored by rational thinking, not by superstition; logic should rule over old baseless beliefs.

" Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action; "

In line 9 and 10 the poet wishes his countrymen to be progressive and broad-minded. He wants that their minds are “led forward” to “ever-widening thought and action” by the Almighty. In short, we should be open-minded and do something unusual or extraordinary, overcoming the narrowness of mind.

" Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake"

In the final line of the poem, the poet addresses the God as ‘Father’. He asks him to awaken his country into such a ‘heaven of freedom’ where the above conditions meet.

Theme

                             The poem talks about , " the boundless power of human knowledge valor of standing by the truth, and the essence of true freedom."