Analysis of The Gardener LXXXI: Why Do You Whisper So Faintly

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



Why do you whisper so faintly in
my ears, O Death, my Death?
    When the flowers droop in the
evening and cattle come back to their
stalls, you stealthily come to my side
and speak words that I do not
understand.
    Is this how you must woo and win
me with the opiate of drowsy murmur
and cold kisses, O Death, my Death?
    Will there be no proud ceremony
for our wedding?
    Will you not tie up with a wreath
your tawny coiled locks?
    Is there none to carry your banner
before you, and will not the night be
on fire with your red torch-lights,
O Death, my Death?
    Come with your conch-shells sound-
ing, come in the sleepless night.
    Dress me with a crimson mantle,
grasp my hand and take me.
    Let your chariot be ready at my
door with your horses neighing impatiently.
    Raise my veil and look at my face
proudly, O Death, my Death!


Scheme ABCDEFGAHBIJKLHIMBNOPIQIRB
Poetic Form
Metre 111101100 111111 1010100 100101111 1111111 0111111 01 11111101 11010011010 01101111 11111100 11010 11111101 11011 111110110 011011011 11011111 1111 111111 1100101 11101010 111011 1110011011 1111010100 11101111 101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 835
Words 160
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 634
Words per stanza (avg) 158
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

48 sec read
76

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…

All Rabindranath Tagore poems | Rabindranath Tagore Books

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