THE REFLECTION OF SPIRITUAL ELEGANCE IN RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S GITANJALI

   Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) popularly known as ‘Gurudev’ was a Bengali poet, composer, philosopher, painter and social reformer. Tagore opposed imperialism. He reshaped Indian literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His ideas, philosophy and works have inspired people throughout the world. In 1913, he became the first non-European as well as the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his masterpiece ‘Gitanjali’ which is an overwhelmingly sensitive and beautiful verse. Tagore's poetic songs are intensely spiritual, lively and sagacious. His prose is elegant and thought-provoking and his poetry is magically heart- touching. He is sometimes referred to as ‘the Bard of Bengal’. Tagore modernized art by disdaining rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, poems, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays were based on political and personal topics. The poem-collection ‘Gitanjali (Song Offerings)’ (1912), the novel ‘Gora (Fair-Faced)’ (1880) and the novel ‘Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World)’ (1916) are his best-known works. His short stories, poems and novels were praised for their colloquial language, lyrics and natural touch with deep contemplation. His compositions were chosen as national anthems by two nations: India's ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and Bangladesh's ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’.