Where The Mind without fear summary
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In the very first line, the poet prays to the Almighty that his countrymen should be free from any fear of oppression or forced compulsion. He wishes that everyone in his country has his head held high in dignity. In other words, according to him, in a truly free country every person should be fearless and should have a sense of self dignity.
Where knowledge is free;
In the second line of Where the Mind is Without Fear the poet dreams of a nation where knowledge would be free. Education should not be restricted to the upper class only but everybody should be allowed to acquire knowledge. Not only that, the children should learn freely from the nature and the world around them. They should not be forced memorize some predetermined lessons. And this is Tagore’s typical concept of education.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
In the next two lines, the poet emphasizes the unity of not only of his countrymen but also of the entire world. He thinks there should be no division among people based on their caste, creed, color, religion or other baseless superstitions. In other words, prejudices and superstitions should not divide the people in groups and break their unity.
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
In line 5 of Where the Mind is Without Fear, Tagore wants a nation where people are truthful. They should not be superficial and words should come out from the depth of their hearts.
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
In the sixth line of the poem, the poet wants everyone to work hard to reach their goal, and in the long run to reach perfection. . He thinks they should not be tired by working. People should not be lazy and ignoring their work.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habits;
In line 7, the poet compares ‘reason’ or logical thinking to a “clear stream’ and in the next line compares ‘dead habits’ or superstitious beliefs to a ‘dreary desert’. He wants the stream of reason not to lose its way into the desert of prejudices. In short, people’s thought should be monitored by rational thinking, not by superstition; logic should rule over old baseless beliefs.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action;
In line 9 and 10 the poet wishes his countrymen to be progressive and broad-minded. He wants that their minds are “led forward” to “ever-widening thought and action” by the Almighty. In short, we should be open-minded and do something unusual or extraordinary, overcoming the narrowness of mind.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
In the final line of the poem, the poet addresses the God as ‘Father’. He asks him to awaken his country into such a ‘heaven of freedom’ where the above conditions meet.
Where the Mind is Without Fear...
The title of the poem where the mind is without fear is written by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali and later translated in English by himself. The poem is written in free verse without following any rhyme scheme or metre.
the poem dreams about the independent country where the value of truth democracy freedom are prejudice or perfective.
the poet has added many figure of speech in the poem like alliteration, repetition, simile ,etc.the example of alliteration is 'head is held high' where repetition of letter 'H' has shown and another example of it is, 'where the world' where repetition of letter 'W' is shown. And the poet has personified the nation and gave imagery to nation ,'' stretches its arm towards perfection''.
The poet has added many powerful line such as:- depth of truth, tireless striving, dreary desert sand, which impacts invocation and gives patriotic tone to the poem.
My favorite line from the poem are 'where the knowledge is free' the Tagore wishes that every child in the country should be given education and education should be free of cost for everyone. ' Into that heaven of freedom, my father let my country awake' Tagore has written this poem during the colonial rule, he wishes the countrymen for freedom, but except freedom he also wishes for freedom of economy, democracy and freedom of health.
I like this poem because it is very sensitive, fresh & has beautiful verses.
~Bhavesh Haldankar.