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Unit 10: Beggarly Heart by Rabindranath Tagore

Thus, Romanticism in his work is related to his Vaishnava faith; he adheres to the doctrine of Notes
Bhakti; his intuitional awareness of the Divine, his mysticism, his idealism and his intense love
of liberty. His poetry swings between two poles – a towering, rich, ennobling imagination and
a deeply felt, intense experience. The high, majestic quality of his imagination combined with
his intense personal awareness and experience makes him a dreamer of dreams as well as a
realistic champion of humanistic values. He is one of those great poets who not only visualized
a kingdom of heaven above common humanity, but also transformed this kingdom of earth
into a genuinely blissful place.

10.11 Beggarly Heart

When the heart is hard and parched up,
come upon me with a shower of mercy.
When grace is lost from life,
come with a burst of song.

When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from
beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner,
break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.
When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one,
thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder.

10.11.1 Summary of the Poem

The poet writes that when the grace from the world and life of the human is lost, he urges the
Lord of Peace to fill himself and the world with his eternal peace, which will make everyone’s
life a harmonious one indeed. Tagore gave all through his life, through his paradisiacal
imagination that envisioned a world of love, equality, honesty bravery, and spiritual unity of
all the mankind. He sees the present humanity is infected with the greed, wealth and power and
further leaves it to those who do evil to turn away from evil doings and horrific moral slumber.
Tagore prayers for India and in turn he prays for the whole Humanity to experience the true
peace and harmony in life by giving up evil and taking up good deeds. The Poet longs for
deliverance from the evil deeds and wants to enjoy freedom in reality.

10.11.2 Critical Analysis

Beggarly Heart is a part of Tagore’s masterpiece Gitanjali. His love for humanity by enforcing the
values of humanity such as peace and harmony overall. Tagore’s poetry Gitanjali reflects his
desperate efforts to see the world to live in peace and harmony in reality. He strives hard and
hard to foster the values of humanity and bring the happiness in the land by encouraging the
masses to love one another, live in peace and lead a harmonious life full of contentment.
Tagore’s goal is to channelize the streams of nationalism to the direction of universalism by
freeing human soul from all bondage and pettiness of the world and thereby transcending itself
into a search for universal love and brotherhood that the Lord provides to the mankind.
Tagore chants this little prayer from his heart especially for those who are spiritually challenged
and waits with great expectation for a benefitting and satisfying answer from God. When the
heart is hard and parched up, make or become dry through intense heat: extremely thirsty, come
upon Him with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When
tumultuous; very loud or uproarious: excited, confused, or disorderly; work raises its din; a

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