“At his
best, Tagore remains a
poet with
a delicate sensibility
deeply Indian in spirit.
‘Freedom of Heaven’ presents Tagore’s
patriotic feeling. He pleads the God to lead his country into an ideal state. The
poem also defines the real and proper meaning of freedom. It a concept of
Tagore’s ‘Utopia’ in compare to ‘Gitanjali’, which expresses the thought that
the heaven in but our own world. Through the poem, Tagore deals with the norms
and dogmas which are very necessary to get heavenly freedom.
Title of the poem
The title is always an
important part of literary creation because it shows theme of poem. The title ‘freedom of Heaven’ is an apt and
suggestive. Here a poet doesn’t mean freedom to roam anywhere or to do whatever
but free and open expression of one’s soul. The poet’s concept is philosophical
which shows creation of freedom rather than enjoyment of freedom.
Theme of the poem
Through the poem, Tagore deals with real
meaning of freedom and true values of Heaven. He talks on heavenly freedom.
Heaven is possible anywhere even also on the Earth. Freedom of thoughts, ideas,
mind, rules, and dogmas transfer earth into heaven. In such freedom earth would able to shift into
heaven. This heaven is compared with a ‘Utopian
State’ where is no suffering and no sin. We can create such heaven
through deeds, ambitious and aspirations. The real heaven is nothing but created
by men. Shakespeare said.
“There is nothing good or
bad but thinking makes it so.”
Critical Summary of the
poem
Tagore
describes some virtual and ideal condition by which we can obtain the freedom. First
Tagore talks on the importance of fearless mind, self-confidence and free
knowledge. In first three lines, Tagore says,
“Where
the mind is without fear
And the
head is held high.
Where knowledge is
free;”
The
mind of men should not have any fear but brave and courageous to sustain and
maintain the truth. The High gold is equally important in life to achieve the
freedom. Being a pioneer of Education in India, Tagore believes in the
Education which must be free and not bound in any narrow bookish system of
examination only. Then Tagore talks about the unity of nation. Narrow domestic walls separate men from men.
To remove them, free and frank communication with every people is very
necessary. Another other importance matter is that freedom is based on the
truth. He says about the truth in following manner.
The words
come out from
the depth of truth.
Here Tagore includes Gandhian
philosophy of truth. In ‘My Experiment of with Truth’, Gandhiji has fully
accepted the value of truth. For Gandhiji, Realization of the Truth is the
purpose of human life. The poet was very influenced and impressed by Gandhi and
presents the value of truth. To get the freedom, the poet believes in
perfection. It comes after hard and continuous efforts. We shouldn’t think of
tiredness. ‘Tireless striving’
is only the way.
“Where tireless striving
stretches
its arm towards
perfection.”
There
is no heaven and no hell, if man can try. There is unique thought and action,
and don’t see anything with narrow sense. Our wayward thinking and haphazard
doing lead only to ‘dreary desert’. The clear stream of reason should not be gone
into desert sand and of dead habit. Here the poet wants to tell something what
is the view of Nehru about thought and action.
‘Thought without action is abortion, and action
without thought is folly’.
At
the last, the poet pleads let these things come in order to awake his country
and shows nationalism and patriotic feeling in the end of poem.
“My
father, Let my county awake.”
Poetic Quality
As
far as poetic quality is concerned, the
poem is in free verse, there is no division of stanza, regular rhyme schemes,
or rhythm.
We find characteristics like
simplicity, lucidity and directness in the poem. We can find lucid and musical
note. We can nice use of alliteration.
Where the mind is without
fear 2. And the head is held
high.
Poet uses the word ‘where’ for 11 times in
the poem. It indicates some particular place where all those things are
happening. In last two lines, poet uses the word ‘My Father’ indicates that
actually poet is praying to God for wel-fare of his country and his country
men.
Even the poem end with ‘Exclamation’
that suggests the sense of surprise and wonder. Tagore wants to bring wonderful
surprise means through freedom the possibility of heaven over earth.
Conclusion
To summing up, ‘Freedom of heaven’ is very thoughtful poem which presents idea
that the heaven is nowhere; heaven is there only on earth. Tagore stresses on
fearlessness, free knowledge, no domestic struggle, truth, perfection. The poem
may remind the Gandhian philosophy of ‘Truth’
and the philosophy of ‘thoughts and
action’ of Jawaharlal Nehru. Tagore’s views can be compared with slogan
of French revolution ‘Equality, liberty and Brotherhood’. The poem can also be
compared with ‘Earthy Paradise’ by Mulk Raj Anand.
In
this way, Tagore was a great nationalist and mighty internationalist. His
poetry is born out of an amalgam of the rich classical heritage of ancient
India. In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru
As a Great
Sage of Indian,
Tagore
gave India’s own
message
in a new language
in
keeping with ‘Yugadharma’,
the spirit of the time’
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