Analysis of Maya

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



That I should make much of myself and turn it on all sides,
thus casting colored shadows on thy radiance
---such is thy Maya.

Thou settest a barrier in thine own being
and then callest thy severed self in myriad notes.
This thy self-separation has taken body in me.

The poignant song is echoed through all the sky in many-coloued tears
and smiles, alarms and hopes; waves rise up and sink again,
dreams break and form.
In me is thy own defeat of self.

This screen that thou hast raised is painted with innumerable figures
with the brush of the night and the day.
Behind it thy seat is woven in wondrous mysteries of curves,
casting away all barren lines of straightness.

The great pageant of thee and me has overspread the sky.
With the tune of thee and me all the air is vibrant,
and all ages pass with the hiding and seeking of thee and me.


Scheme AXX XXB XXXX XXXA XXB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111011111 11010111100 11110 11010001110 011110101001 1110101101001 0101110110101011 0101011110101 1101 011110111 11111111010100010 101101001 0111111001010011 1001110111 011011011101 1011101101110 0110110100101101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 851
Words 160
Sentences 10
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 4, 4, 3
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 133
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
173

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was an Indian polymath—poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. more…

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