7 of The best Rabindra Nath Tagore poems

The literary giant of India,Popularly Known As "Kabi Guru" and The only person in the world  to have written the national anthems of two nations. Rabindranath Tagore  was a Poet, Novelist,Artist and music composer.

Born into a Bengali Brahmin family in Calcutta, He believed that God was found through personal purity and service to others. Tagore was known primarily for his poetry which was deeply influenced by the mysticism of the Hindu Upanishads. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature becoming Asia’s first Novel laureate.

However, Tagore was prolific in many other artistic fields. Besides his poetry, Tagore produced many novels, short stories and dramas. Beside all these He was also a cultural reformer, and modernized Bangali art. He made it possible to make art using different forms and styles.When he was sixty he began to draw and paint, and his art was exhibited in Paris and London.

7 of the Best RabindraNath Tagore Poems

7 of the best Rabindra Nath Tagore Poems

Poetry of Tagore's is very diverse, and covers many styles. Many of his poems have a lyrical quality. he wrote many experimental works of poetry, and also used modernism and realism in his works.

One of his poems has words like: "all I had achieved was carried off on the golden boat; only I was left behind". 



Following 7 poems are the best of Rabindra Nath Tagore poems.



1.  " LAST CURTAIN "

LAST CURTAIN

LAST CURTAIN

I know that the day will come

when my sight of this earth shall be lost,

and life will take its leave in silence,

drawing the last curtain over my eyes. 

Yet stars will watch at night,

and morning rise as before,

and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. 

When I think of this end of my moments,

the barrier of the moments breaks

and I see by the light of death

thy world with its careless treasures.

Rare is its lowliest seat,

rare is its meanest of lives. 

Things that I longed for in vain

and things that I got

--let them pass.

Let me but truly possess

the things that I ever spurned

and overlooked.

              2. RABINDRANATH TAGORE POEM ON FREEDOM

FREEDOM

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,

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.

3. " LEAVE THIS "

LEAVE THIS

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! 

Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? 

Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! 

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground 

and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. 

He is with them in sun and in shower, 

and his garment is covered with dust. 

Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil! 

Deliverance? 

Where is this deliverance to be found? 

Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; 

he is bound with us all for ever. 

Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! 

What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? 

Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

4. RABINDRANATH TAGORE POEM ON THE NATURE OF LOVE

ON THE NATURE OF LOVE

The night is black and the forest has no end;

a million people thread it in a million ways. 

We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where

or with whom - of that we are unaware. 

But we have this faith - that a lifetime's bliss

will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips. 

Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs

brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks. 

Then peradventure there's a flash of lightning:

whomever I see that instant I fall in love with. 

I call that person and cry: `This life is blest!

for your sake such miles have I traversed!' 

All those others who came close and moved off

in the darkness - I don't know if they exist or not

5. RABINDRANATH TAGORE POEM ON FRIEND

MY FRIEND

                             

Art thou abroad on this stormy night

on thy journey of love, my friend? 

The sky groans like one in despair. 

I have no sleep tonight. 

Ever and again I open my door and look out on

the darkness, my friend! 

I can see nothing before me. 

I wonder where lies thy path! 

By what dim shore of the ink-black river, 

by what far edge of the frowning forest, 

through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading

thy course to come to me, my friend?

6. GIVE ME STRENGTH

GIVE ME STRENGTH

This is my prayer to thee, my lord—-strike, 
strike at the root of penury in my heart. 

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. 

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. 

Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. 

Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. 

And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.

7. ENDLESS TIME

ENDLESS TIME

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. 

There is none to count thy minutes. 

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. 

Thou knowest how to wait. 

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. 

We have no time to lose, 

and having no time we must scramble for a chance. 

We are too poor to be late. 

And thus it is that time goes by 

while I give it to every querulous man who claims it, 

and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last. 

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut; 

but I find that yet there is time.


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