The Rainy Day

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



Sullen clouds are gathering fast over the black fringe of the
forest.
    O child, do not go out!
    The palm trees in a row by the lake are smiting their heads
against the dismal sky; the crows with their dragged wings are
silent on the tamarind branches, and the eastern bank of the river
is haunted by a deepening gloom.
    Our cow is lowing loud, ties at the fence.
    O child, wait here till I bring her into the stall.
    Men have crowded into the flooded field to catch the fishes
as they escape from the overflowing ponds; the rain-water is
running in rills through the narrow lanes like a laughing boy who
has run away from his mother to tease her.
    Listen, someone is shouting for the boatman at the ford.
    O child, the daylight is dim, and the crossing at the ferry
is closed.
    The sky seems to ride fast upon the madly rushing rain; the
water in the river is loud and impatient; women have hastened home
early from the Ganges with their filled pitchers.
    The evening lamps must be made ready.
    O child, do not go out!
    The road to the market is desolate, the lane to the river is
slippery. The wind is roaring and struggling among the bamboo
branches like a wild beast tangled in a net.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

1:07 min read
167

Quick analysis:

Scheme abCdefghijklfmnoapqnCklr
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,205
Words 225
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was an Indian polymath—poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. more…

All Rabindranath Tagore poems | Rabindranath Tagore Books

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