Gitanjali 36

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) · 1912

9 lines · from Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

This is my prayer to thee, my lord—strike, strike at the root of penuryin my heart.

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.

Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees beforeinsolent might.

Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.

And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will withlove.

Words in this poem

penury n.
Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. pénurie.]

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

About this text

Gitanjali 36 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats (India Society, London, 1912), Project Gutenberg ebook #7164; 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, Gitanjali 36, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-36.html, id L27898.

About this section

Gitanjali 36 is prose, printed in 6 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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