Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Gitanjali
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love quiet, reflective poetry, prayers not tied to one creed, and Indian literature, with themes of devotion, service, freedom and peace.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Gitanjali is a book of 103 short prose poems by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. Its name means an offering of songs. The poems are addressed to God, who appears as a Master, a King, a Friend, a Guest and a Beloved. Tagore wrote the Bengali songs over many years and published a Bengali Gitanjali in 1910. In 1912 he brought out an English prose version in London, with an introduction by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. In 1913 it helped win him the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first given to a writer outside Europe.
What will you find here? Not a theory of religion, and not a set of rules. You will find a voice that speaks plainly, sometimes in joy, sometimes in doubt, to a presence it cannot see. The poems are about giving yourself away, about waiting at the door, about finding the divine in a road worker or a farmer, and about facing death without fear. They are short enough to read in a minute each, yet they build a single long prayer. Let us begin with the poet and the shape of the book.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A Bengali poet offers songs to GodFree
- 2The singer finds he is only a vessel
- 3God is found among the poor and the working
- 4Longing, waiting and the guest at the door
- 5Images, plain prose and the sound of songs
- 6Freedom, death and the peace the book seeks
Punkt 1 von 6
A Bengali poet offers songs to God
Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta into a family of writers, musicians and reformers. He wrote poems, plays, stories, novels and essays, and he also composed thousands of songs. Many of the songs in Gitanjali were first made to be sung, and Bengali listeners still know them as music. That fact matters, because the poems began as melody before they became English prose.
The Bengali book of 1910 held its own set of songs. The English Gitanjali of 1912 is a different gathering. It draws poems from that book and from several other Bengali collections, and it presents them in a plain, rhythmic prose rather than in rhyme. Tagore made this choice himself. The result is a text that sounds closer to the language of the psalms than to English verse of his day.
Yeats read the poems on a ship and in London parlours, and he wrote that they stirred him deeply. His introduction told English readers that here was a poetry which came from a whole culture rather than from one clever person. He compared the songs to the work of wandering singers and saints who had carried devotion into everyday life. That praise carried the book across Europe and America within a year.
The poems are numbered, not titled. Most are short, some only a few lines, and none depends on the one before it for its meaning. You can open the book anywhere. Knowing this helps you read it as one long prayer and not as a heap of separate pieces.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 15,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h
- Listening time1 h 40 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Gitanjali
What is Gitanjali about?
Gitanjali is a collection of devotional poems addressed to God. The speaker offers his songs and life, waits for the divine, learns humility, and finds God among ordinary working people. It also reflects on freedom and on facing death calmly.
What does the word Gitanjali mean?
Gitanjali comes from Bengali words for song and offering. It can be understood as an offering of songs. The title shows that the poems are meant as gifts given to God, not as arguments or lessons.
Did Gitanjali win the Nobel Prize?
Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, and Gitanjali was the work that brought him to the attention of the Western world. He was the first non-European to receive the prize.
Is Gitanjali hard to read?
The language is simple and the poems are short. A few poems a day work well.
Is Gitanjali about one religion?
It draws on Indian devotional traditions and on the reform thinking of Tagore's family, but it names no single creed. God is addressed in personal, loving terms, which is why readers of many faiths have found meaning in it.