Analysis of I Am Restless

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



I am restless. I am athirst for far-away things.
My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance.
O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am bound in this spot evermore.

I am eager and wakeful, I am a stranger in a strange land.
Thy breath comes to me whispering an impossible hope.
Thy tongue is known to my heart as its very own.
O Far-to-seek, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that I know not the way, that I have not the winged horse.

I am listless, I am a wanderer in my heart.
In the sunny haze of the languid hours, what vast vision of thine takes shape in the blue of the sky!
O Farthest end, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that the gates are shut everywhere in the house where I dwell alone!


Scheme XXAX XXBAX XXAB
Poetic Form
Metre 111011111011 11110010110110110 11011011111 101110011111111111101110 111001110100011 11111100101001 111111111101 11111011111 101110011111011111011 1110110100011 0010110101011101111001101 11011011111 10111001101111000111101
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 830
Words 175
Sentences 15
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 5, 4
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 13
Letters per stanza (avg) 210
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

52 sec read
84

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…

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