The Gardener 40
An unbelieving smile flits on your eyes when I come to you to take my leave.I have done it so often that you think I will soon return.To tell you the truth I have the same doubt in my mind.For the spring days come again time after time; the full moontakes leave and comes on another visit, the flowers come again andblush upon their branches year after year, and it is likely that Itake my leave only to come to you again.But keep the illusion awhile; do not send it away with ungentle haste.When I say I leave you for all time, accept it as true, and let amist of tears for one moment deepen the dark rim of your eyes.Then smile as archly as you like when I come again.
Words in this poem
- unbelieving a.
- Not believing; incredulous; doubting; distrusting; skeptical.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- ungentle a.
- Not gentle; lacking good breeding or delicacy; harsh.
- deepen v. t.
- To make deep or deeper; to increase the depth of; to sink lower; as, to deepen a well or a channel.
- archly adv.
- In an arch manner; with attractive slyness or roguishness; slyly; waggishly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Gardener 40 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Gardener, translated by the author from the original Bengali (Macmillan, London and New York, 1913; this text the 1915 printing), Project Gutenberg ebook #6686; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rabindranath Tagore, The Gardener 40, in The Gardener (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6686, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gardener/poem-40.html, id L27676.
About this section
The Gardener 40 is prose, printed in 1 paragraph. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.