Speech on Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the world’s most prestigious ‘Nobel Prize for Literature’. He has also played a very important role in the Indian cultural renaissance. Read the article for more information and try to prepare an informative speech on Rabindranath Tagore.

Table of Contents

• Sample Speeches on Rabindranath Tagore
  • Biography of Rabindranath Tagore
  • Two-Minute Speech on Rabindranath Tagore
  • One-Minute Speech on Rabindranath Tagore
• Rabindranath Tagore’s Famous Quotes
• Frequently Asked Questions on Rabindranath Tagore

Sample Speeches on Rabindranath Tagore

A few samples of speeches on Rabindranath Tagore are given below. Go through these speeches and utilise them to expand your wisdom.

Biography of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861, as the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. Till the age of 17, Tagore was educated at home. Then he was sent to England for higher studies, but he did not finish it. He was very much interested in literature, and soon after returning to India from London, he started writing in the Bengali language. He published several books of poetry in the 1880s and introduced a new literary style in the Bengali language. In 1890, he published ‘Manasi’, and it marked his transition to a major Bengali writer.

In 1891, Tagore moved to East Bengal to manage his family’s estates at Shilaidaha and Shahzadpur. This relocation brought great changes in the life of Tagore; he received an opportunity to realise the purity of common humanity, which increased his participation in social reforms. Life in East Bengal brought Tagore in close contact with the local village people, and his sympathy for them became the major theme of his later writings. Bengali countryside and the beauty of the Padma river were repeatedly portrayed in his poetry. It was during this time he published Chitrangada (1892) and Sonar Tari (1894).

In 1901, Tagore started an experimental school at Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He tried to implement several educational ideas from the Upanishads for the students. Tto ensure the proper running of the system, Tagore permanently settled at the school and tried to deliver the best of the Western and Indian traditions to the students. Later in 1921, Shantiniketan school became Visva Bharati University.

The demise of his wife and two children between 1902 and 1907 deeply affected the life of Tagore. The publication of his world-famous collection of poetry ‘Gitanjali’, marked his recovery after several years of despair. It was published in the year 1910, and love is presented as its main theme. Some of the verses in the collection discuss the internal conflict of spiritual longings and earthly desires of human beings. Tagore translated it later into prose poems in English under the title ‘Gitanjali: Song Offerings.’ It was published in 1912 with a preface written by William Butler Yeats. The publication of Gitanjali helped him win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Rabindranath Tagore thus became the first non-European to win the world’s most prestigious award for literature.

Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941.

Two-Minute Speech on Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, the man with immense literary and artistic accomplishments, was highly influenced by three movements in his life. In “My Life”, an essay from the collection Lectures and Addresses (1988), he wrote that he “was born and brought up in an atmosphere of the confluence of three movements, all of which were revolutionary.” The first one was the religious reform movement initiated by Raja Rammohan Roy, the second one was the literary revolution started by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and the Indian National Movement was the third.

The artistic atmosphere of his house, the beauty of nature, and the virtuous character of his father are the other early influences that shaped Tagore’s literary career. Even though he was admitted to different schools, nature offered him the best education. In his writing, he says, “I had a deep sense, almost from infancy, of the beauty of nature, an intimate feeling of companionship with the trees and the clouds, and felt in tune with the musical touch of the seasons in the air”. Nature was always a theme in his writings. Some of his famous literary works are Manasi (1890), Sonar Tari (1894), The Golden Boat), Gitanjali (1910), Chitrangada (1892), Gora (1910), and Ghare-Baire (1916). Besides these notable works, the National Anthem of India – ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and Bangladesh – ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ were his compositions. Furthermore, the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was inspired by his work.

One-Minute Speech on Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore played a pivotal role in the Indian cultural renaissance. Tagore was a great social reformer, musician, and educator in his life. Even though he made many notable contributions to literature as a novelist, lyricist, short story writer, essayist, literary critic, journalist, philosopher, and much more in his life, he prioritised poetry over everything.

Rabindranath Tagore was a strong admirer of poetry. He once said, “I have, it is true, engaged myself in a series of activities. But the innermost me is not to be found in any of these. At the end of the journey, I am able to see, a little more clearly, the orb of my life. Looking back, the only thing of which I feel certain is that I am a poet.”

Rabindranath Tagore’s Famous Quotes

• “Love’s gift cannot be given; it waits to be accepted.”
• “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.”
• “By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”
• “If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.”
• “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
• “It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.”
• “Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
• “We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.”
• “Love is an endless mystery because there is no reasonable cause that could explain it.”
• “Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”