The Rain has Held Back by Rabindranath Tagore (Text & Summary)

 

The Rain has Held Back

by Rabindranath Tagore

(Text & Summary) 

This is the 40^th poem of ‘Gitanjali’. Here Tagore feels as if God is neglecting him, and this is very painful to him. The poet wants God to come and fill his sterile heart with spiritual, love. Only God can drive away his carnal thoughts.

 

The Rain has Held Back

The rain has held back for days and days, my God, in my arid heart. The horizon is fiercely naked-not the thinnest cover of a soft cloud, not the vaguest hint of a distant cool shower.

Send thy angry storm, dark with death, if it is thy wish, and with lashes of lightning startle the sky from end to end.

But call back, my lord, call back this pervading silent heat, still and keen and cruel, burning the heart with dire despair.

Let the cloud of grace bend low from above like the tearful look of the mother on the day of the father's wrath.

 

Summary

This poem is poet's prayer for divine inspiration. Tagore tells God, that there has been no rain for a long time on his dry heart. He says, that his heart is as dry as a desert. The sky and the horizon are also dry. The sky is hot and bare and there has not been the slightest sign of clouds or of rain.

He prays God to send dark angry clouds and bring fierce storm and let the sky be surprised into fear with great lashes of lightening. The poet prays God to remove this cruel heat of the poet's heart. The poet asks God to send him the clouds of grace, and charm that bears a countenance resembling that of a sad, fearful mother when an angry father scolds her children.