T his was probably one of the most productive writing segments in his life, and it resulted in an inaptly applied epitaph, The Bengali Shelley”. Among these were The Golden Boat (Sonar Tari) and the well known Khanika. Then, in between 1893 and the beginning of the 1890s, he published a total of seven volumes of poetry. He later collected a large selection of folklore and local legands from the area now known as Bangladesh.

Tagore wrote his first collection of poems at the age of 17, and it was published by one of his friends as a surprise gift.

By 1883, he had married and had three daughters and two sons, all from his only wife, Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri. His earliest education was provided by tutors, followed then by a variety of schools including one year at a college in London. Tagore, the youngest of his family, began composing poetry at the young age of eight. His family were pioneers within the Bengal Renaissance, making great efforts to combine their traditional culture from India with those of the Western. Sarada Devi, his mother, died when he was just a young boy - when her body was carried out through the courtyard and then burned, was when he first realized that his mother would never return. His Brahman family was wealthy and prominent his father, Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, was a scholar and religious reformer. Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 in the vast city of Calcutta.

Selected Poems by Gabriela Mistral