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Unit 12 Lesson 3
Rabindranath Tagore
Objective : By the end of the lesson you will have
• talked about some of Tagore's work
• translated some verses
• extracted specific in formation from a text
A You have certainly read Rabindranath Tagore's poetry. In pairs discuss and note down some features of his poems.
You discuss and write down the following.
1 Give 3 titles of Tagore's poems.
2 Name 2 novels and 2 short stories by Tagore.
3 Give the first two lines of one or two common Tagore songs and translate them into English. (Remember our national anthem is a Tagore song)
B Read the following text.
Young Rabindranath in London
Rabindranath, the fourteenth child of Debendranath and Sarada Devi Tagore, went to school early and wrote his first verse at the age of eight. At the age of seventeen, in 1878, he arrived in London, on his way to Brighton, he join his brother's family and attend school there. London made a poor impression on him; He described it as a dismal city, smoky, foggy, and wet, with everyone jostling and in a hurry.
Though he was happy in Brighton, a friend of the family persuaded his brother to send him to London in order to benefit from his education in the West. Ho was put up in a lodging-house facing Regent's Park but later moved to the house of a professional coach, a Mr Scott, as a paying guest.
Young Tagore joined London University, where he attended Henry Morley's lectures in English literature and read Religio Medici and Shakespeare with him. He often visited the Houses of Parliament and listened to Gladstone and John Bright's debates on Irish Home Rule.
Away from the home of his brother's family, he was lucky to find a friendly English family with whom he spent .some time, but not without some initial opposition from the two daughters in the family, who were rather taken aback with the presence of a^blackie1 in the house and went away to stay with relatives. They returned only after being reassured that the stranger was harmless. Dr and Mrs Scott, the girls' parents, in fact treated him like a son.
In 1880, Rabindranath was called back to India. His letters, full of admiration for English society made his family think again about the wisdom of letting him loose in England alone. He returned home without any qualifications of distinction.
[Source: The Graphic. 23 June 1923].
C Read the passage again and answer the following questions.
1 Why 'did Tagore go to England?
2 How did he spend his time in London?
3 Why did the Scott girls leave their house? What do you think of their behaviour?
4 What did Tagore think of London and of English society in general?
5 Expand the idea contained in the phrase "the wisdom of letting him loose in England alone".
6 Do you think his two-year stay in England at that age had any influence on Tagore's life? If so, discuss in pairs and share your ideas with the class.
D Write a paragraph in about 10 sentences on any of Rabindranath's writings for your college magazine. You can share information about this in pairs before you start to write.
Focus :
Skills.
Reading,
speaking,
writing. Functions.
Evaluating actions,
justifying behavior.
Grammar/Structure.
Past tense as narrative,
expressing understanding:
'I can understand why
they left the house.' Vocabulary.
dismal, impression,
persuade, taken aback,
distinction.
This text will be replaced
Unit 12 Lesson 3
Rabindranath Tagore
Objective : By the end of the lesson you will have
• talked about some of Tagore's work
• translated some verses
• extracted specific in formation from a text
A You have certainly read Rabindranath Tagore's poetry. In pairs discuss and note down some features of his poems.
You discuss and write down the following.
1 Give 3 titles of Tagore's poems.
2 Name 2 novels and 2 short stories by Tagore.
3 Give the first two lines of one or two common Tagore songs and translate them into English. (Remember our national anthem is a Tagore song)
B Read the following text.
Young Rabindranath in London
Rabindranath, the fourteenth child of Debendranath and Sarada Devi Tagore, went to school early and wrote his first verse at the age of eight. At the age of seventeen, in 1878, he arrived in London, on his way to Brighton, he join his brother's family and attend school there. London made a poor impression on him; He described it as a dismal city, smoky, foggy, and wet, with everyone jostling and in a hurry.
Though he was happy in Brighton, a friend of the family persuaded his brother to send him to London in order to benefit from his education in the West. Ho was put up in a lodging-house facing Regent's Park but later moved to the house of a professional coach, a Mr Scott, as a paying guest.
Young Tagore joined London University, where he attended Henry Morley's lectures in English literature and read Religio Medici and Shakespeare with him. He often visited the Houses of Parliament and listened to Gladstone and John Bright's debates on Irish Home Rule.
Away from the home of his brother's family, he was lucky to find a friendly English family with whom he spent .some time, but not without some initial opposition from the two daughters in the family, who were rather taken aback with the presence of a^blackie1 in the house and went away to stay with relatives. They returned only after being reassured that the stranger was harmless. Dr and Mrs Scott, the girls' parents, in fact treated him like a son.
In 1880, Rabindranath was called back to India. His letters, full of admiration for English society made his family think again about the wisdom of letting him loose in England alone. He returned home without any qualifications of distinction.
[Source: The Graphic. 23 June 1923].
C Read the passage again and answer the following questions.
1 Why 'did Tagore go to England?
2 How did he spend his time in London?
3 Why did the Scott girls leave their house? What do you think of their behaviour?
4 What did Tagore think of London and of English society in general?
5 Expand the idea contained in the phrase "the wisdom of letting him loose in England alone".
6 Do you think his two-year stay in England at that age had any influence on Tagore's life? If so, discuss in pairs and share your ideas with the class.
D Write a paragraph in about 10 sentences on any of Rabindranath's writings for your college magazine. You can share information about this in pairs before you start to write.
Focus :
Skills.
Reading,
speaking,
writing. Functions.
Evaluating actions,
justifying behavior.
Grammar/Structure.
Past tense as narrative,
expressing understanding:
'I can understand why
they left the house.' Vocabulary.
dismal, impression,
persuade, taken aback,
distinction.