The Gardener XL: An Unbelieving Smile

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



An unbelieving smile flits on your
eyes when I come to you to take my
leave.
    I have done it so often that you
think I will soon return.
    To tell you the truth I have the
same doubt in my mind.
    For the spring days come again
time after time; the full moon takes
leave and comes on another visit,
the flowers come again and blush
upon their branches year after year,
and it is likely that I take my leave
only to come to you again.
    But keep the illusion awhile; do
not send it away with ungentle
haste.
    When I say I leave you for all
time, accept it as true, and let a
mist of tears for one moment deepen
the dark rim of your eyes.
    Then smile as archly as you like
when I come again.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
85

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLCHDMNMFOPQH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 692
Words 143
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 23

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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