The Rain has Held Back
by
Rabindranath Tagore
(Text & Summary)
This is the 40th 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.
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