Fruit Gathering

Rabrindinath Tagore  (7th May, 1861 – 7th August, 1941) should need little introduction since this Renaissance Man excelled not only in poetry but novels, short stories, songs, dancedramas, and essays that spoke to generations around the world of universal themes both political and personal. He reshaped Bengali literature and was the first non European to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. Fruit Gathering is a book so rare in style and theme, yet not difficult to relate to as it is based on the relationship between God and man, the atom and the cosmos. Tagore was heavily influenced by the rich heritage of the Subcontinent and uses its fruit and flowers to symbolise the spiritual and moral values that underlie his own devotion and love for the creator. His simple poetic style finds the most evocative words and phrases, symbols and images, which have haunting music in them bringing out the deepest emotions of any reader. Fruit Gathering is the finest example of Tagore’s simple poetic style whose influence is still strong today with his words heard daily in the Indian and Bangladesh national anthems and studied in countless countries as they continue to capture hearts and minds.