Fruit-Gathering is a collection of prose poems by Rabindranath Tagore published in English in 1916. Like Gitanjali, it gathers poems translated by Tagore from his Bengali works, meditating on life, work, love, death and the presence of the divine. It is often seen as a sequel to Gitanjali.
A sequel to Gitanjali
After the success of Gitanjali and his Nobel Prize in 1913, Tagore continued to translate his Bengali poems into English prose.
Fruit-Gathering contains eighty-six poems, drawn from several Bengali collections.
Themes
The poems speak of the ripening of life, the meaning of work, the beauty of nature and the soul's longing for the infinite.
Some are short parables or scenes, such as the story of a servant, a beggar or a traveller.
Tagore's English
Tagore's English prose poems have a simple, rhythmic quality, close to the Bible and to the psalms in tone.
They were very popular in Europe and America in the years around the First World War.
Anecdotes
Santiniketan
Tagore founded a school at Santiniketan, in Bengal, in 1901, which later became Visva-Bharati University.
A knighthood returned
Tagore was knighted in 1915, but he renounced the title in 1919 in protest against the Amritsar massacre.
Frequently asked questions
When was Fruit-Gathering published?
In 1916.
Who translated the poems into English?
Tagore himself.
Which earlier collection does it follow?
Gitanjali.