Tagore’s Modernist Predilections: Incursions into an Unchartered Territory

Literary criticism on Rabindranath Tagore in his relation to English literature has been largely misleading, for it has largely limited itself to elaborating on possible similarities and comparisons between nineteenth century English poets like Shelley, Keats, Thompson and Tennyson on the one hand, and Rabindranath Tagore on the other. An undue and unjustified emphasis has been laid on his early works; and as a result, the traits of romanticism and mysticism in Tagore's poetry have been highlighted and augmented out of all proportion. The fact that Rabindranath Tagore is essentially a modern poet who lived and wrote during the twenties and the thirties of the twentieth century has been needlessly and heedlessly overlooked. It is imperative that the literary works of Rabindranath Tagore produced during the post-Gitanjali period be compared and contrasted with those of the Modern English poets. It is only then that scholars and researchers in the field of Tagorean literature will attain a comprehensive understanding of the art of Rabindranath Tagore.