The Gardener 52

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) · 1913

10 lines · from The Gardener

Why did the lamp go out?I shaded it with my cloak to save it from the wind, that is whythe lamp went out.

Why did the flower fade?I pressed it to my heart with anxious love, that is why the flower faded.

Why did the stream dry up?I put a dam across it to have it for my use, that is why the stream dried up.

Why did the harp-string break?I tried to force a note that was beyond its power, that is why theharp-string is broken.

Words in this poem

went n.
Course; way; path; journey; direction.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Gardener 52 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 52, in The Gardener (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6686, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gardener/poem-52.html, id L27688.

About this section

The Gardener 52 is prose, printed in 4 paragraphs. 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.

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