‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ is a famous poem written by Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913). It is taken from his Nobel Prize winning collection ‘Gitanjali’; he originally wrote it in Bengali and translated it into English himself. The poem is in free verse, so it has no fixed rhyme scheme. It is a prayer to God in which the poet describes the ideal nation he dreams of. The central idea is that India should awake into a ‘heaven of freedom’ – not only political freedom from the British but also freedom from fear, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, falsehood and blind customs. The poet wishes for a country where people hold their heads high, knowledge is free, words come from the depth of truth and people work tirelessly towards perfection. The poem uses several figures of speech: Anaphora in the repetition of ‘Where’, Metaphors such as ‘clear stream of reason’, ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’ and ‘heaven of freedom’, Personification in ‘tireless striving stretches its arms’, and Apostrophe in addressing God as ‘Thee’ and ‘my Father’. The language is simple yet rich in imagery, and the tone is earnest, prayerful and patriotic. My favourite line is “Where knowledge is free”, because education for all is the foundation of a strong nation. The poem has a universal appeal, as its message applies to every country. I like the poem because it is inspiring and still relevant today, and it encourages me to be fearless, truthful and broad-minded.
