Tag: poem

Upagupta – a poem by Tagore

Upagupta
Upagupta

Upagupta is a beautiful work by Tagore. The story goes as follows:

Upagupta is a disciple of Buddha, and goes from one place to another. He is sleeping in a small town when a dancing girl wakes him up and requests him to sleep at her home. Upagupta refuses, and tells her “I will visit you when the time is ripe.”.
A year later, and again on travel to the same place, Upagupta finds the dancing girl lying on the ground outside the town, having sores all over the body and shunned by the townsfolk. He applies balm on her body and when asked who he was, he replies “The time has come to visit you and I am here.”

Please read the whole poem, it’s beautiful. What I like about the poem is – how Tagore contrasts Time. When the dancing girl is giddy with pride, Upagupta knows its not going to last.

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Twenty froggies

Talking about life two five year olds through a poem on frogs.

I remember this poem we had to memorise in second standard. Not the full poem but the gist of it. Here it goes:

Twenty froggies went to school, down beside a rushy pool,
Twenty little coats of green, twenty vests all white and clean.
“We must be in time”, said they; “First we study, then we play;
That is how we keep the rule, when we froggies go to school.”

Master Froggy, grave and stern, called the classes in their turn,
Taught them how to nobly strive; likewise how to leap and dive;
From his seat upon a log, showed them how to say “Kerchog!”
Also how to dodge a blow from the sticks which bad boys throw.

Twenty froggies grew up fast, big frogs they became at last;
Not one dunce among the lot; not one lesson they forgot;
Polished to a high degree, as each froggy ought to be,
Now they sit on other logs, teaching other little frogs.

Although I still have the book, instead of typing I have copied it from here, and its attributed to a compilation by H.R. Pattengill.

The poem tears past the years of dust that has settled on the memories. Why it does that I cant say. It does provide an interesting way to convey life to five year olds with amazing clarity. If life can be explained through a poem on frogs in this way, then it cannot be as complex as we consider it as grown-ups.

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