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Secondary sourceBook1916

Rabindranath Tagore, the Man and His Poetry

Basanta Koomar Roy · 1916

A 1916 study of Tagore's life and poetry by Indian writer Basanta Koomar Roy, introduced by Hamilton W. Mabie.

An early biography describing Tagore's life, poetry, and his introduction to Western audiences via Yeats.

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Rabindranath Tagore, the Man and His PoetryPDF · 246 pages
Basanta Koomar Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, the Man and His Poetry, 1916. Scanned copy, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This book, Rabindranath Tagore, the Man and His Poetry, was written by Basanta Koomar Roy and published in 1916 with an introduction by Hamilton W. Mabie. It is an illustrated study of Tagore's life and work, held as a scanned text by the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

The book notes that Tagore was introduced to Western readers by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in 1912, after which English papers and magazines praised him enthusiastically. This shows how Tagore's international fame began and how it was received in the West.

Look closer

  • Why might the author mention that English papers 'lauded the decadence of poetry in the West' compared to Tagore's work?
  • What role did W. B. Yeats play in Tagore's introduction to Western readers, according to this account?
  • How might an Indian-American author's perspective differ from a purely Western or purely Indian one?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rabindranath Tagore on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of the book Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by Rabindranath Tagore, a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats, published by Macmillan and Co., London, 1913.Book

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Black and white photograph of Rabindranath Tagore leaving a building, Sigtuna, May 1921.Photograph

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Title page of Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by Rabindranath Tagore, a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats. Macmillan and Co., Limited, London, 1913.Book

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Rabindranath Tagore · 1910

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Bertil Waldén · May 1921

Piano sheet music score titled 'Jana Gana Mana' by Rabindranath Tagore, in D minor/F major key with 4/4 time, tempo 96, two staves (treble clef) with dynamics like f, p, ff and a fermata at the end.Document

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Jana Gana Mana

Rabindranath Tagore · 11 December 1911

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