“Gitanjali” of Rabindranath Tagore: With Critical Evaluations

“Gitanjali” of Rabindranath Tagore: With Critical Evaluations, which was originally published with the same title and content in 2006, depicts Tagore’s spiritual journey towards the Supreme Being. It is a collection of devotional songs in which he offers his prayer to God. But the religious fervour of these songs never affects the poetic beauty.  It appeals to the readers with its oceanic depth expressed in simplicity, optimism and spiritual affirmation, richness and variety, humanization of the divine, use of domestic image and symbols. The relationship between the Supreme Being and human being is shown.

This book is a modest endeavour to evaluate the complete poems. Nature, common people, music, humanity, sympathy and sense-perceptions are the core feelings of these poems. Tagore uses a wide range of vivid and picturesque image and symbols, which are drawn from everyday life as well as from age-old myths. Several symbols like light, boat, cloud, pitcher, flute, palace, flowers, river, star, sky recur in his songs. These natural objects are used to convey deeper spiritual truth.