Summary of the poem superior written by rabindranath tagore
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What is a summary of the poem "Superior" by Rabindranath Tagore?
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MWESTWOOD eNotes educator| CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
A Nobel Prize winner for Literature, both a philosopher and a pragmatist, Rabindranath Tagore often translated his own poetry into English; this ability to do so is beneficial because as the author, he knows the precise intent of his work. His poems are described as musical and lyrical.
Here is a summary of the poem "Superior":
The poem is written in the voice of an unimaginative schoolmaster who tells the mother with unconscious irony, "Your baby is so absurdly childish." He faults the child with further dramatic irony for not being able to distinguish between the concrete and the mundane and that which is not:
She does not know the difference between the lights in the
streets and the stars.
When we play at eating with pebbles, she thinks they are real
food, and tries to put them into her mouth.
Yet, when the schoolmaster reads the alphabet from a book, the child tears the pages and laughs "with joy." When he says "Father," she should know, as everyone else does, that her father is not there; still, she looks around with wonder. Further, this teacher does not understand the child's fright when the donkeys of the laundry man stand near him and the child screams, and for "no reason," she calls out "dada." In the final lines, the schoolmaster informs the mother,
Your baby wants to catch the moon. She is so funny; she calls
Ganesh Ganush.
And concludes with the same line with which he began, "Mother, your baby is silly! She is so absurdly childish!" displaying further his great lack of understanding for the humanistic values that the child intuitively grasps.
Answer:
Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Superior" is about an unknown speaker's complain to a mother about the restless and unethical nature of her daughter in school.
Explanation:
The poem "Superior" by the great poet Rabindranath Tagore reveals how the teacher/ speaker of the poem is incapable of truly understanding the mentality and nature of a small girl.
The narrator/ speaker starts with the lines "Mother, your baby is silly! She is so absurdly childish!", stressing his annoyance at the child. He then goes on a sort of ranting, pointing out the flaws and misbehavior of the small girl. Using the poetic devices of alliteration but with no specific rhyming scheme, Tagore managed to perfectly show the incompetence of an adult to perceive the world from a child's perspective. For the teacher, the girl is a silly being, incapable of learning even after many attempts by the teacher.
Ending with the same lines "Mother, your baby is silly! She is so absurdly childish!", the poet shows the lack of understanding the world of a child, and how innocent these beings are. Adults should try to be simple like these little innocent souls, intuitively learning from their surroundings and without any prejudice or influence.