The Banyan Tree Poem by Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Calcutta (Kolkata), Bengal Presidency / British India

The Banyan Tree

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O you shaggy-headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond,
have you forgotten the little chile, like the birds that have
nested in your branches and left you?
Do you not remember how he sat at the window and wondered at
the tangle of your roots and plunged underground?
The women would come to fill their jars in the pond, and your
huge black shadow would wriggle on the water like sleep struggling
to wake up.
Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny shuttles
weaving golden tapestry.
Two ducks swam by the weedy margin above their shadows, and
the child would sit still and think.
He longed to be the wind and blow through your resting
branches, to be your shadow and lengthen with the day on the water,
to be a bird and perch on your topmost twig, and to float like
those ducks among the weeds and shadows.

Thursday, January 1, 2004
Topic(s) of this poem: tree
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
bruh 12 July 2021

The poet uses this comparison because just the way a shadow twists and turns on the waves, similarly a person twists and turns his body while waking up from sleep.

0 0 Reply
Akhil Rocks 13 November 2017

Kirrrrrrrrak

0 2 Reply
Priyanshu Saini 20 June 2016

The poet compares the “shadow wriggling”on the water to “sleep struggling to wake up”.Do you think the comparrison is appropriate? Why

9 6 Reply
Priyanshu Saini 20 June 2016

Why does the huge black shadow of the tree wriggle when the women come to the pond?

7 1 Reply
Priyanshu Saini 20 June 2016

What does the word Shaggymean? Does the word aptly describe a banyan tree?

5 2 Reply
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Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Calcutta (Kolkata), Bengal Presidency / British India
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