O Death My Death Tagore Analysis

From what was discussed in our collaborative tête-à-tête, Rabindranath Tagore, whose birth (1961) semicentennial was praised for just a few years ago, expressed his views on all the fundamental phases of the past and present Indian society. Starting from the Vedic age (the most elderly scripters of hinduism), the Buddhist period, the age of the colossal stories Rámayana and Mahábharata, and the age of the spiritualist holy people of the Indian Medieval times (Common Era). Indeed, even the most unmistakable contemplations of resurgent India blended him and discovered expression in his compositions. He is the image of the genuine soul of Indian thought all through the ages. The inward voice and vision of antiquated India showed and discovered

This could be because he endured the death of his father, son, daughter and wife. “O Death, my Death?” in the second line is interesting because it implies that he’s calling out to Death to approach him. The personal pronoun “my” makes it seem as though he’s becoming anxious about death as he may see it nearing in on him or, alternatively, he’s trying to control his own fate by claiming the inevitable truth of death as his own. In this part of the poem the tone is quite calm and dettatched however as the poem progresses, his feelings become much more personal, angry, defiant and confrontational.

Tagore further expresses his mixture of feelings and emotions towards his entelechy of death, which include mystery, happiness and what some might regard as anger. The poet begins his piece with a collection of very eerie words and phrases. Death “whisper[s] so faintly in my (his) ears” which suggests that perhaps Tagore recognises that the end of his life is closing in on

Tagore creates a lexical field of romance almost suggesting death is trying to “woo” him. This presents the idea that Tagore may feel a desire towards death, however Tagore goes on to convey the idea that he could not fall for something as coy as death. This suggests Tagore feels there should be a sense of pride in death, something he strongly desires. All of these factors show that Tagore feels bold, assured and not afraid of death.

Contrastingly, in the poem ‘Oceans of Forms’ Tagore presents his fear of facing death. He describes his life’s work as ‘hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless’ and how his failure to do so leaves him ‘eager to die into the deathless’. The poem acts as a metaphor for a life lived without accomplishment, in this case, the failure to find poetic immortality. Tagore uses unsettling images such as ‘fathomless abyss’ to convey his feelings of fear from living an unaccomplished life to the