Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore Literary Elements

The poet engages in a number of different narrator points-of-view in this collection. Many are written from a first-person perspective in which the speaker seems to be a projection of the poet. The collection's many narrative poems, however, are told using a third-person perspective in which the persona of the narrative voice is anonymous.

The poet usually works in free verse without any set meter. The bulk of the poems in this collection are examples of either the form of lyric poetry or narrative verse.

"Music that should rise on its own joy from the depths of the heart / Is crushed by heedless clamour, like a fountain under a stone." From "Broken Song"

"Slowly, softly she moves away into the woodland gloaming. / Along the sea-shore the sun shines, the sea breaks and rolls." From "Highest Price"

The poem "Question" concludes with the ironic titular query to God: "Can it be that you have forgiven them? Can it be that you love them?" in response to God's commandment that people love and forgive one another.

Poetry/Indian Poetry/Hindu Poetry

Various, but primarily India in the late 19th century and early 20th century

Various. The tone of the poems in this collection range from lighthearted and comic to profoundly spiritual.

In the "The Hero" these oppositional figures are most starkly drawn. Protagonist: the young boy narrating an exciting adventure in which he heroically protects his mother. Antagonist: long-haired desperate swashbuckling villains armed with swords

"Flying Man" uses airplanes as the symbol of the conflict between the past and the future. The airplane allowed humans to conquer the last remaining element over which nature had been victor. The poem intimates that having gained power over land, sea, and air, "the age we live in is drawing to a close."

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The opinion of offered of "Man Flying" is foreshadowed in the poem's opening words which refers to the airplane as a "Satanic machine."

That "The Hero" is not an actual narrative, but merely an adventure tale being told by a young boy is revealed through sudden understatement: "Life is such a boring matter, / Why are the exciting stories never / True?"

Throughout the collection are poems which make allusions to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction

"Heart" is used as a synecdoche to refer to feelings of love in multiple poems.

The poem "Africa" personifies the continent throughout the verse with multiple examples of human attributes.

"I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times / In life after life, in age after age forever." From "Unending Love"

From "Railway Station" this device is used to replicate the sound of the bell signaling the departure of the train. "Clang – Clang – sounds the tocsin"