Gitanjali 75

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) · 1912

10 lines · from Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

Thy gifts to us mortals fulfil all our needs and yet run back to theeundiminished.

The river has its everyday work to do and hastens through fields andhamlets; yet its incessant stream winds towards the washing of thyfeet.

The flower sweetens the air with its perfume; yet its last service isto offer itself to thee.

Thy worship does not impoverish the world.

From the words of the poet men take what meanings please them; yettheir last meaning points to thee.

Words in this poem

needs adv.
Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
everyday a.
Used or fit for every day; common; usual; as, an everyday suit or clothes.

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

About this text

Gitanjali 75 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 75, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-75.html, id L27937.

About this section

Gitanjali 75 is prose, printed in 5 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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