Tagore and Rural Bengal

Some of Tagore's best lyrics were inspired by his love of nature and the rural Bengal. The most recurrent images are rains, rivers, boats, fields and villages and the rich flora and fauna.

"The day is no more; the shadow is upon the earth. It is time that I go to the stream to fill my pitcher.

The evening air is eager with the sad music of the water. Ah, it calls me out into the dusk. In the lonely lane, there is no passer-by, the wind is up, and the ripples are rampant in the river.

I know not if I shall come back home. I know not whom I shall chance to meet. There at the fording in the little boat the unknown man plays upon his lute." (Gitanjali)

“All the colour, the light and shade, the still splendour of heavens, and the peace and glory that fill the region between sky and earth- what a tremendous ensemble they create!"

"....... There was not a single ripple on the Padma; and from the line of its farthest shore, way beyond the new sandbank in the middle right up to the nearer shore, glimmered a broad band of moonlight. Not a living soul, not a boat, not a tree nor a blade of grass was visible.……."
(Selected Letters, Glimpses of Bengal)