The Hero
by Rabindranath Tagore
The Poem :
"Mother, let us imagine we are travelling,
and passing through a strange and dangerous country.
You are riding in a palanquin and
I am trotting by you on a red horse.
It is evening and the sun goes down.
The waste of Joradighi lies wan and grey before us.
The land is desolate and barren.
You are frightened and thinking,
'I know not where we have come to.'
I say to you, 'Mother, do not be afraid.'
The meadow is prickly with spiky grass,
and through it runs a narrow broken path.
There are no cattle to be seen in the wide field;
they have gone to their village stalls.
It grows dark and dim on the land and sky,
and we can not tell where we are going.
Suddenly you call me and ask me in a whisper,
'What light is that near the bank?'
Just then there bursts out a fearful yell,
and figures come running towards us.
You sit crouched in your palanquin
and repeat the names of the gods in prayer.
The bearers, shaking in terror,
hid themselves in the thorny bush.
I shout to you 'Don't be afraid, mother. I am here.'
With long sticks in their hands
and hair all wild about their heads,
they come nearer and nearer.
I shout, 'Have a care, you villains!
One step more and you are dead men.'
They give another terrible yell and rush forward.
You clutch my hand and say,
'Dear boy, for heaven's sake, keep away from them.'
I say, 'Mother, just you watch me.'
Then I spur my horse for a wild gallop,
and my sword and buckler clash against each other.
The fight becomes so fearful, mother,
that it would give you a cold shudder
could you see it from your palanquin.
Many of them fly, and a great number are cut to pieces.
I know you are thinking, sitting all by yourself,
that your boy must be dead by this time.
But I come to you all stained with blood,
and say, 'Mother, the fight is over now.'
You come out and kiss me, pressing me to
your heart, and you say to yourself,
'I don't know what I should do if I hadn't my boy to escort me.'
A thousand useless things happen day after day,
and why couldn't such a thing come true by chance?
It would be like a story in a book.
My brother would say, 'Is it possible?
I always thought he was so delicate!
Our village people would all say in amazement,
'Was it not lucky that the boy was with his mother?'
Summary of the Poem :
The little boy in the poem imagines that he is passing through a strange and dangerous country with his mother. He is riding a red horse side by side his mother's palanquin. Gradually the sun sets and it becomes evening when they reaches the desolate waste of Joradighi. The mother gets frightened due to some unknown fear. The boy tells her not to be scared.
They are moving along the narrow broken path across the meadow with spiky grass. There are no cattle grazing there. They have returned to their respective shelters as the sun has set. Then the mother draws the attention of her son by informing him about some light on the bank of Joradighi nearby them.
They have been aimed by some robbers. They have been approaching towards them to rob them. The mother becomes very scared and she has started to pray to gods. The bearers of the palanquin are shivering and have hid themselves behind thorny bushes nearby. The boy assures his mother not be get frightened as her son is there.
The robbers are ready to attack with long sticks in their hands and wild hairs in their heads. The boy warned them not to proceed farther unless he will kill them all. But they do not stop. The mother forbids the son to get close to them. The boy spurs the horse for a wild gallop and he fight against the robbers with his sword and shield. It was a fearful fight. Many of the robbers run away and some have got killed by the little boy.
The mother is shivering in the palanquin thinking that what is the result of the fight. She also having a premonition that his son is alive or not. Then the son goes to her and informs that the war has been won by him. The mother becomes very happy and she hugs and kisses the boy in affection. She becomes happy that fortunately her son was with her.
The boy used to have many such imaginations day by day. He wishes them to be true. If they become true, they will be in books in the form of stories. In respect to this incident, the boy says that his brother will not believe it and doubt about the strength of the little boy to win such battle. The villagers will be amazed to know the whole incident and it was fortunate that the boy was with his mother.
Making Connections
Quick Answers
1. Give details of the strange and dangerous country through which the narrator imagines himself to be travelling with his mother. Fill in the boxes with the details.
a. land : The land is desolate and barren. It was all empty. There were no one present there.
b. meadow : The meadow is prickly with spiky grass. A narrow broken path runs through it.
c. field : The field is wide. As the evening has fallen, all the cattle have returned to their shelter in the village. There are no cattle to be seen.
d. sky : The sky is dark and dim.
2. Read these lines and answer the questions that follow.
a. "It is evening and the sun goes down.
The waste of Joradighi lies wan and grey
before us.
The land is desolate and barren."
i. Who are 'us' in these lines?
= In these lines, 'us' are the boy and his mother.
ii. By what means are they travelling?
= The boy is riding on a red horse and his mother is riding in a palanquin side by side her son.
iii. What do the travellers think and say about the place?
= The sun sets and it becomes evening when they reaches the desolate waste of Joradighi. It is a lonely place. They can not guess where they have reached then. The mother becomes frightened due to some unknown fear at that desolate place. The boy tells her not to be scared.
b. "With long sticks in their hands
and hair all wild about their heads, they come
nearer and nearer."
i. Who are the persons described here?
= The persons described here are the dacoits.
ii. What are they coming nearer and nearer to?
= They are coming nearer and nearer to the boy and his mother.
iii. What are the means of travel they are using?
= The dacoits are approaching on foot. The boy is riding a red horse and his mother is riding a palanquin.
c. "A thousand useless things happen day after day,
and why couldn't such a thing come true by
chance?
It would be like a story in a book."
i. What does the boy mean by 'such a thing'?
= The boy means the adventurous journey with his mother through the strange and dangerous country by 'such a thing'.
ii. What reaction does the boy imagine from his brother?
= His brother will not believe the story of the adventurous journey and doubt about the strength of the little boy to win such battle against a band of robbers.
iii. What would be the reaction of the villagers?
= The villagers will be amazed to know the whole incident and they will think that it was fortunate that the boy was with his mother.
3. How do you know that the incidents described only happen in the boy's imagination? Why do you think the boy imagines such a dangerous situation?
= At the very first line of the poem, the boy says that 'Mother, let us imagine we are travelling, and passing through a strange and dangerous country.' So, the whole poem is the mere imagination of the little boy.
Then at the last part of the poem, the boy says that 'A thousand useless things happen day after day, and why couldn't such a thing come true by chance?' These lines reveal that he imagines many such things in his mind day after day. He wishes they may come true some day.
Every child is reared under the supervision of the elders. They lead a restricted life to some extent. In their innocent mind, they sometimes want to become free from all the limitations drawn by the elders. They also want to do all those works of the grown ups. They want to be hero. They imagine to become great to their elders by conducting heroic deeds. Here the same psychology derived the little boy to imagine such a dangerous situation.
4. What response do you think the mother would give her son?
= I think the mother would praise the boy for wishing to do such a job of bravery. She should be proud to feel that her son loves her so much. On the other hand, she should be conscious about the fact that the boy might get into some trouble to do such heroic thing. She should indirectly try to make him understand that his mother is already very happy to have him as her son. There is no need to do those type of thing untill he grows up to an adult.
5. The little boy wants to save his mother, if a situation such as he imagines were to arise. But he also wants acclaim from certain others. Who are these people and why do you think the boy wants their appreciation?
= The little boy wants to save his mother, if a situation such as he imagines were to arise. But he also wants acclaim from certain others. He wants acclaim from his brother and from the village people.
Every child is reared under the supervision of the elders. They lead a restricted life to some extent. In their innocent mind, they sometimes want to become free from all the limitations drawn by the elders. Here in this poem, the boy also wants to do all those works of the grown ups and get appreciation. He wants to be hero. He imagines to become great and extraordinary in the eyes of their elders by conducting heroic deeds. So that the elders consider the boy equivalent to them and make him free from all the restrictions.
About the Poet :
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was born in Kolkata into a prominent family which took keen interest in literature and culture. He started writing poetry at the age of eight. He eventually became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913. Tagore founded a school called Patha Bhavana in 1930, which eventually expanded into the Visva-Bharati University.