When Worlds Collide: Tagore, Yeats, and the Phenomenon of Gitanjali

“…so abundant and simple is this poetry, the new Renaissance has been born in your country…”

A statement likening Tagore’s Gitanjali: Song Offerings to a new Renaissance acknowledged the transformative power of Tagore’s poetry and its potential to ignite a cultural reawakening. Encapsulating the simplicity of Tagore’s verses along with their profound spiritual and philosophical themes, the observation paralleled them to a period of great artistic and intellectual growth across England. It also underscored the universal and transcendental appeal of a poet who would soon become the first non-European Nobel laureate in literature.

The speaker of this profound statement was none other than the renowned Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, with whom Tagore crossed paths during his third visit to Britain in the summer of 1912. During this encounter, Tagore had the opportunity to engage with literary pioneers including Ezra Pound, Thomas Sturge Moore, and most significantly, W.B. Yeats. At the suggestion of English painter William Rothenstein, Yeats immersed himself in the verses of Gitanjali: Song Offerings, leading him to conclude with eloquence and conviction that, “If someone were to say he could improve this piece of writing, that person did not understand literature”. 

Henceforth began a celebrated association between Tagore and Yeats, leading the latter to write the introduction for Gitanjali: Song Offerings, which earned the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1913. This correspondence has since become an enduring representation of the Indo-Irish connection, with Yeats’ preface being frequently cited in academic studies exploring this subject.

The collection by Tagore, originally written in Bengali, comprises 157 poems, many of which have been turned into songs or Rabindrasangeet. The translated version Gitanjali: Song Offerings was published in November 1912 by the India Society of London which contained translations of 53 poems from the original Gitanjali, as well as 50 other poems extracted from Tagore’s Achalayatana, Gitimalya, Naivadya, Kheya,and more. Overall, Gitanjali:Song Offerings consists of 103 prose poems of Tagore’s own English translations. 

It is believed that what most likely led to its warm reception in the West is a combination of Tagore’s lyrical brilliance, intrinsic merit, universality, and Yeats’ endorsement of Gitanjali: Song Offerings. Many assert it was Tagore’s fusion of the rational humanist spirit of European enlightenment and the spiritually inclined Indian heritage, which drew Westerners to the depth and richness of his poetry. The seamless and rather natural harmony of these two schools of thought captivated Western intellectuals, cementing Tagore’s place among the esteemed Nobel laureates.

Scholars also note that Yeats’s enthusiastic admiration for an Oriental poet and his works contributed significantly to welcoming Tagore into the Western literary canon. The fascination Yeats had for Tagore is unsurprising, given that he often discussed the idea of a shared cultural memory that could bridge distant civilizations. Tagore’s appeal to him lay in the fact that his verses also echoed a similar idealistic vision of universal unity, allowing for a broader understanding of human experiences beyond the specific circumstances of India and Ireland. Thus, Yeats, known for his strong critique of colonialism and imperialism, naturally felt a sense of alignment with the transcendental spiritual tone of Gitanjali: Song Offerings. 

Yeats’s later reference to his encounter with Tagore as “one of the great events of my artistic life” underscores the profound impact the meeting had on him. Although certain divergences in their artistic inclinations emerged over time, it also added to the complexities and nuances of the Tagore-Yeats affinity. It further highlights that in the realm of art and literature, what remains true and absolute is the creation itself, such as Gitanjali: Song Offerings, which in Yeats’s words is, “the work of a supreme culture, they yet appear as much the growth of the common soil as the grass and the rushes.”