Analysis of On the Seashore

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
    The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
    They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the seashore of worlds.
    They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl-fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets.
    The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby's cradle. The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.
    On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad and children play. On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children.


Scheme ABCDEF
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101101 01001110010100101011001011101010111010 111101101111011101111101001110111011110111 11111111111111101111010111101010010101111110101111111 011011100110110111101110010101010101011001010011110011011011 101110110110100111110011011010101101110110110110
Characters 1,173
Words 197
Sentences 16
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 6
Lines Amount 6
Letters per line (avg) 154
Words per line (avg) 33
Letters per stanza (avg) 921
Words per stanza (avg) 195
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

59 sec read
183

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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