By All Means They Try to Hold Me Secure by Rabindranath Tagore (Text & Summary)

By All Means They Try to Hold Me Secure

by Rabindranath Tagore

(Text & Summary)

In this poem (32^nd in Gitanjali), Tagore talks about the unrestrictive nature of God's spiritual love and compares it with the possessive love of human beings. The love that men and women show to one another is a selfish kind of love. On the other hand, God allows full freedom and is never possessive.

By All Means They Try to Hold Me Secure

By all means they try to hold me secure who love me in this world. But it is otherwise with thy love which is greater than theirs, and thou keepest me free.

Lest I forget them they never venture to leave me alone. But day passes by after day and thou art not seen.

If I call not thee in my prayers, if I keep not thee in my heart, thy love for me still waits for my love.

In this poem, Tagore compares the possessive love of human and the pure, true love of God. He says that the people, who love him, try to hold him in their power. But God's love is greater, He loves the poet more yet He leaves him free and doesn't bound him.

The poet says that the earthly love tries to bind him more and more because they fear that he shall forget them but as far as God is concerned, days and days pass and He can't be seen. The poet further says, that God's love is such that even if he doesn't call to God in his prayers, or keep the thoughts or image of God in his heart, God always loves him.

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