Question

Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in paragraph format.

Where the Mind is Without Fear …
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by Thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Answer 1

Appreciation of the poem - Where the Mind is Without Fear. 
‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ is a thought-provoking poem written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian Writer, Poet, and Philosopher.

    It is a prayer to God in which Tagore addresses God as ‘’My Father’’ and asks Him to awaken his country into heaven of freedom, where there is total freedom of good thoughts, good words, and good actions. He wishes for a country where people should be free from fears, where knowledge would be free to all individuals and people from all castes and religions should be united.

    The poem is written in free verse without any rhyme scheme or meter throughout the poem. Figures of speech like Repetition, Metaphor, and Personification are used to give more poetic effects. “where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection’’ - Here the poet personified ‘tireless striving’ stretching its arms to reach its goal.
    The special feature of this poem is the emotion it conveys and the strong feelings of the poet for the progress of the country. It is an extremely patriotic poem written in the form of a prayer. It is a poem of hope. The poet uses many metaphors to elaborate on the evils existent in the country. It is full of positive and negative imagery.

    My favourtie line is: ‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high’. I like this line because there is a very positive emotion in this line, showing fearlessness, dignity, and self-respect. I like this poem because it displays Tagore’s metaphoric sketch, the disparity between the present time and place, and a future where people are truly free. It is a simple, deeply sensitive, poem that carries a universal appeal of peace and harmony.