1 h 38 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 40 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 40 pagesAbout this book
A lamp burns, a guest is expected, and a singer waits for a presence he cannot see.
In Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore gathers 103 short prose poems into a sustained prayer. The speaker addresses God as Master, King, Friend, Guest and Beloved. He speaks with joy, doubt and longing, asking what it means to give himself fully. The title means an offering of songs, and each poem adds to that offering.
The collection moves between inward reflection and the world of daily work. A singer is called away from a closed temple toward workers and farmers. Elsewhere, he prepares a house and lights a lamp for an absent guest. Rivers, monsoon rain, boats and road dust give shape to questions of faith, freedom and death.
What you’ll discover
- The singer as vessel Meet a speaker who sees his gifts as something received, rather than something owned.
- Beyond the temple doors Explore poems that seek divine presence among poor people, road workers and farmers.
- The long-awaited guest Share the quiet tension of a prepared house, a burning lamp and an empty road.
- Bengal in everyday images Follow rivers, flutes, harvests and rain through spiritual questions rooted in ordinary life.
- Surrender without easy certainty Sit with poems that bring joy and doubt into the search for peace.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy quiet devotional poetry, nature imagery, songs of the soul, and short pieces that you can read aloud and carry through a day.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The poet offers his life as a song
- God is found among the poor and the working
- Longing and waiting fill the middle of the book
- The small self builds walls that must fall
- Joy in nature, children, and the passing of life
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Gitanjali
by Rabindranath Tagore · 1912
A singer waits at his door for a beloved master whose footsteps he hears but whose face he has never seen.
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In short
What would you sing if the one you love stood just beyond your reach? Gitanjali, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, is a book of 103 short poems, offered as songs to a divine master, friend and beloved.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The poet offers his life as a song
The opening poems set the whole book in motion. The poet sees himself as a frail vessel and a little reed flute, emptied and filled again by a higher hand. His songs are gifts that he can only offer, never fully earn.
In the early poems he asks to strip his song of ornament, since decoration would come between him and the one he sings to. He wants his life to be simple and straight, like a flute. In another poem he sits for a moment beside his master and leaves his work for later.
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What is Gitanjali about?
Gitanjali is a book of 103 devotional poems addressed to a divine master, friend and beloved. They speak of humility, longing, joy, freedom from ego, nature and the approach of death, in simple and musical language.
What does the word Gitanjali mean?
The poems are meant as gifts sung to God, which fits the poet's image of himself as a reed flute filled with music.
Who is the poet speaking to in Gitanjali?
He speaks to a divine presence he calls master, lord, king, friend, beloved and mother. The figure is never described in one fixed way, so readers from many faiths can find their own meaning.
The author
Rabindranath Tagore
1861–1941 · Bengali poet and philosopher
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet and writer born in Calcutta, British India, where he also died. He lived in Bengal and founded a school at Santiniketan in 1901. He wrote poetry, stories, plays and essays. His Bengali collection Gitanjali appeared in 1910; his English version appeared in 1912.
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