Gitanjali Literary Elements

The narrative voice of Gitanjali is an unnamed speaker, presumably the poet persona. The speaker explores his spirituality and delves into the relationship between god and man. The speaker of the poetic collection goes on a spiritual journey in his quest for a union with god. The speaker conveys the variety of emotions that he feels on this journey, including his awe, overwhelming love, devotion, gratitude, and joy. He also explores the theme of the struggle between spiritual and worldly desires.

Tagore does not use any particular overarching meter in this poetry collection, but uses the prose-poetry form.

The poems in Gitanjali use a lot of imagery, and the metaphors and similes contribute to the beauty of these poems.
For example, Tagore compares life's simplicity to a flute or his devotion to god to a bird in flight.
Simile:
"my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea" (Poem 2)
"my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed" (Poem 7)
Metaphor:
"far-spreading wing of my song" (Poem 2)
"the air is filling with the perfume of promise." (Poem 44)

The aspect of Gitanjali that makes it captivating to all its readers is the musicality of the poems, which is caused by the bold structuring of repetitive sounds, whether through poetic devices like alliteration, consonance, and assonance.
"At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart"(Poem 1) - hands, heart - Alliteration
"I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord."(Poem 2) - forget, friend - Alliteration
"I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind."(Poem 4) - the repeated use of the 't' sound can be seen in this line. - Consonance
"great gifts that thou gavest to me unasked"(Poem 14) - repeated use of the 'g' sound - Consonance
"I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house." -repeated use of the 'o' sound - Assonance

Gitanjali does not use the stylistic element of irony, as it is a collection of spiritual poems.

Gitanjali is written in the form of narrative lyric poetry. Though the poems are rich in poetic elements, since in does not have any form or meter, it is considered to be prose petry.

The poem is set in a pre-independent India, where the poet embarks on a spiritual quest to find truth in god, and asks for god to guide them in their quest for freedom. This can be seen in the words "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." (Poem 35)

The tone of the poem is mainly devotional, but also has elements of love, joy, and humility.

Gitanjali has no particular protagonist or antagonist, though the main voice is of the poet persona.

Gitanjali represents the major conflict between the worldly and the spiritual in man's quest for spirituality, to find the eternal truth. He depicts this conflict when he says "I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind" (Poem 4), which depicts the conflict he faces through the untruths, in his quest to find the eternal truth which is god.

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Though not widely used, metonym has been used in some instances, like in the lines "I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet."(Poem 12) where the sun represents God, and also the spiritual journey he is on.

Personification is another poetic device that is not widely seen in Gitanjali but has been used in some instances, like in the lines "Misery knocks at thy door" (Poem 27).

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