Analysis of To what shore would you cross

Kabir 1440 (Banaras) – 1518 (Maghar)



To what shore would you cross,
O my heart?
there is no traveller before you,
there is no road:
Where is the movement,
where is the rest,
on that shore?

There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there;

There is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it.
No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford!

There, there is neither body nor mind:
and where is the place that shall still the thirst of the soul?
You shall find naught in that emptiness.
Be strong, and enter into your own body:
for there your foothold is firm.
Consider it well,
O my heart!
go not elsewhere,
Kabîr says: 'Put all imaginations away,
and stand fast in that which you are.'


Scheme xAxxxxx b xx xxxxxxAbxx
Poetic Form Tetractys  (25%)
Etheree  (25%)
Metre 111111 111 111100011 1111 11010 1101 111 111101111011 111111011101101111 11111111111111 111101011 0110111101101 111101100 11010011110 111111 01011 111 111 11111001001 01101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 687
Words 139
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 1, 2, 10
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 128
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

41 sec read
149

Kabir

Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. The name Kabir comes from Arabic al-Kabīr which means 'The Great' – the 37th name of God in Islam. Kabir's legacy is today carried forward by the Kabir Panth, a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9,600,000. They are spread over north and central India, as well as dispersed with the Indian diaspora across the world, up from 843,171 in the 1901 census. His writings include Bijak, Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar. more…

All Kabir poems | Kabir Books

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