Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore Summary

Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore Summary

"In the Eyes of a Peacock"

A writer sits on his terrace on a spring morning. As he writes, he is approached by a peacock that shows absolutely no interest in what he is doing. He is suddenly interrupted by his favorite granddaughter asking if he is writing. He replies apologetically that it is prose and she says that when he recites prose, it sounds like poetry.

"Unending Love"

The speaker reflects upon how he feels like he has relived his life with his beloved across time and in multiple forms. Their love feels ancient but always new. It reshapes itself to ensure a universal repetition.

"The Hero"

A young boy tells a tale of being the hero of a grand adventure story in which he saves his mother from a variety of threats, including that drowning in a rushing river and an attack by armed highwaymen. He ends by asking why life is so much more boring than such adventure stories.

"Question"

An unidentified speaker questions God about His timeless repetitive message to forgive everyone always regardless of their trespasses. He ends by directly pressing God on the issue of whether He can forgive those who extinguish His message and deny His existence.

"Palm Tree"

A palm tree is personified as a single-legged giant with dreams of piercing the clouds rising above it. The wind makes it wonder if perhaps its fronds are feathers. When the winds died down, however, it remembers that the earth below is its mother and decides it prefers its solitary place in the dirt, after all.

"Day's End"

At the end of the day, when it has grown too late to go sailing, the speaker asks a girl on what foreign shore he has landed. She gives no answer and instead turns and leaves, balancing a full jar of water on her head. The strange land is lit up in gold with the sunset and he hears nothing but the echo of the girl's movement away from him. He sits content, glad to be done with a life of commerce and simply satisfied with the serenity offered by the quiet glow of peace.

"Flying Man"

The speaker bemoans the age of progress and complains that the time he knows best is close to an end. The man had already taken dominion over the land and the sea and now with new advancements in technology, it is about to conquer the air. The final resting place of the gods is being taken over by man in a way that can only end in the inevitable self-destruction of the species.

"Railway Station"

A narrator speaks of love to come to the train station to watch the coming and going of both trains and passengers. This constant movement reminds the speaker of individual pictures in movement like a film. Each second of every passenger's life is a snapshot of a moment which is like words on a page that can be erased and started again. At last, the speaker decides that this image represents the truth of the world. Life is a series of paintings in constant flux merely giving the illusion of forward movement.

"Guest"

The speaker addresses an unidentified entity as "lady" by telling her that she has brought sweetness to his days in exile. Staring at the southern sky through a window brings forth a message from celestial night telling him that he is their guest welcome to the light from the darkness. He does not know the language but hears the message of welcome as music.

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