English Poems Index


I Cannot Remember My Mother :


I cannot remember my mother

only sometimes in the midst of my play

a tune seems to hover over my playthings,

the tune of some song that she used to

hum while rocking my cradle.

I cannot remember my mother

but when in the early autumn morning

the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air

the scent of the morning service in the temple

comes to me as the scent of my mother.

I cannot remember my mother

only when from my bedroom window I send

my eyes into the blue of the distant sky,

I feel that the stillness of

my mother's gaze on my face

has spread all over the sky.



By Rabindranath Tagore from Sishu Bholanath



About the Poet :

Rabindranath Tagore, popularly known as Gurudev (1861 (1941) was a Bengali poet, dramatist and novelist. Tagore won the Nobel Prize for literature for his work, Gitanjali. He founded the Shanthiniketan to promote Indian Culture, Art and Music. Tagore lost his mother when he was a child.

This poem I cannot remember my mother is about a child who does not remember his dead mother. But the child perhaps carries some associations of the mother’s image in his mind.



Words to Know :

Hover : hang about, linger

Rocking : moving gently

Hum : sing with closed lips

Distant : far away

Gaze : look fixedly