Unending love - Rabindranath Tagore (Poem Analysis)
Ravi Shankar the Sitar Maestro in his book Raga Mala argued that had Rabindranath Tagore been born in the west he would now be as revered as Shakespeare and Gothe.
Rabindranath Tagore a prolific Bengali poet, writer, painter and music composer reshaped the Bengali literature and music by infusing the colloquial language and freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. Tagore wrote his first poem when he was eight. He was the first Non - European to receive Nobel Prize in Literature for his masterpiece Geetanjali - Song offerings(1913). He was very influential in introducing Indian culture to the west and was hailed by W.B Yeats and André Gide. Though Tagore is praised all over the world, for the Bengali natives he has been and remains an altogether exceptional literary figure. Among his numerous notable poems, Unending love has its unique stature.
The poem Unending love states the concept of eternal love between man and woman. This poem was Audrey Hepburn's (American actor) favourite poem and reading was dedicated by Gregory Peck (American actor).
This poem reflects the Hindu idea of the transmigration of the soul. The speaker is in love with his lady love irrespective of the time and form. His love is eternal as he loved her throughout life and continues to do so afterlife. In this poem, Tagore plays with the concept of time. He can identify the conditions in the present tense and examines how these moments are part of a larger scope, which reflects the past and the future. Tagore reconfigures time and our perception of it. The experiences we experience now is a part of something else, something larger, and in this, we are enveloped with who we are now, who we might have been, and who we might be. This is where "Unending Love" finds itself. The love that the speaker is experiencing with his beloved is something that is of the ages. This vision of love is one that is experienced right now, in its current form but was something that is indelibly imprinted in the consciousness of time. The idea of "age after age" and the concept of love being "remade" almost brings to life that there is a spiritual connection between the two lovers, or at least felt by the speaker, that they have stood in their midst of this love "before" in a previous time. While the love that is spoken is specific between two people, it is also reflective of a universal construct that applies to "millions of lovers," bringing out the idea that the love shared is in fact, "unending."
One of the implications of this is that individuals are not in the ownership of the love they share. Rather, they are a part of something infinitely more cosmic, an experience that is a small morsel of a larger feast. It is a very interesting conception of the individual self that is rendered in the poem. The speaker articulates a condition of love that is felt towards another, indicating it is a part of something larger. However, herein lies a potential paradox in that while it is expressed as something the speaker feels and something that is experienced, it is not the speaker's, and it does not belong to him. It is universal, and something of which he and his love is a small part and has been a small part for some time. In this, there is a vision of love that encompasses both the specific and the universal, the present and all of the time. Tagore's stamp in the poetry of love is to both praise and demystify the individual at the same time.
Rabindranath Tagore a prolific Bengali poet, writer, painter and music composer reshaped the Bengali literature and music by infusing the colloquial language and freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. Tagore wrote his first poem when he was eight. He was the first Non - European to receive Nobel Prize in Literature for his masterpiece Geetanjali - Song offerings(1913). He was very influential in introducing Indian culture to the west and was hailed by W.B Yeats and André Gide. Though Tagore is praised all over the world, for the Bengali natives he has been and remains an altogether exceptional literary figure. Among his numerous notable poems, Unending love has its unique stature.The poem Unending love states the concept of eternal love between man and woman. This poem was Audrey Hepburn's (American actor) favourite poem and reading was dedicated by Gregory Peck (American actor).
This poem reflects the Hindu idea of the transmigration of the soul. The speaker is in love with his lady love irrespective of the time and form. His love is eternal as he loved her throughout life and continues to do so afterlife. In this poem, Tagore plays with the concept of time. He can identify the conditions in the present tense and examines how these moments are part of a larger scope, which reflects the past and the future. Tagore reconfigures time and our perception of it. The experiences we experience now is a part of something else, something larger, and in this, we are enveloped with who we are now, who we might have been, and who we might be. This is where "Unending Love" finds itself. The love that the speaker is experiencing with his beloved is something that is of the ages. This vision of love is one that is experienced right now, in its current form but was something that is indelibly imprinted in the consciousness of time. The idea of "age after age" and the concept of love being "remade" almost brings to life that there is a spiritual connection between the two lovers, or at least felt by the speaker, that they have stood in their midst of this love "before" in a previous time. While the love that is spoken is specific between two people, it is also reflective of a universal construct that applies to "millions of lovers," bringing out the idea that the love shared is in fact, "unending."
One of the implications of this is that individuals are not in the ownership of the love they share. Rather, they are a part of something infinitely more cosmic, an experience that is a small morsel of a larger feast. It is a very interesting conception of the individual self that is rendered in the poem. The speaker articulates a condition of love that is felt towards another, indicating it is a part of something larger. However, herein lies a potential paradox in that while it is expressed as something the speaker feels and something that is experienced, it is not the speaker's, and it does not belong to him. It is universal, and something of which he and his love is a small part and has been a small part for some time. In this, there is a vision of love that encompasses both the specific and the universal, the present and all of the time. Tagore's stamp in the poetry of love is to both praise and demystify the individual at the same time.
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