Question

Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in a 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

Points 

1. The title and the poet of the poem (01)
2. Rhyme scheme (01)
3. Figures of speech (01)
4. Central Idea/Theme (02)

Answer 1

The poem, ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’, has been written by Rabindranath Tagore. It is a patriotic poem, written in the form of a prayer to God. There is no fixed rhyme scheme in the poem as it is written in a free verse format and does not have a fixed meter. The figures of speech used to beautify the poem are Alliteration, Apostrophe, Consonance, Metaphor, Metonymy, and Personification. An example of Alliteration from the poem is “Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit” as the sound of the letter ‘d’ is repeated for poetic effect. He desires and prays for an overall awakening of the people of the nation and not just for political freedom. This poem is not only a prayer to the Almighty but also a message to the countrymen to awaken from the bondages of colonial rule.