Where the Mind is Without Fear

Where the Mind is Without Fear: Line by line Explanation

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

In the very first line, the poet prays to the Almighty that his countrymen should be free from any fear of oppression or forced compulsion. He wishes that everyone in his country has his head held high in dignity. In other words, according to him, in a truly free country every person should be fearless and should have a sense of self dignity.

Where knowledge is free;

In the second line of Where the Mind is Without Fear the poet dreams of a nation where knowledge would be free. Education should not be restricted to the upper class only but everybody should be allowed to acquire knowledge. Not only that, the children should learn freely from the nature and the world around them. They should not be forced memorize some predetermined lessons. And this is Tagore’s typical concept of education.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;

In the next two lines, the poet emphasizes the unity of not only of his countrymen but also of the entire world. He thinks there should be no division among people based on their caste, creed, color, religion or other baseless superstitions. In other words, prejudices and superstitions should not divide the people in groups and break their unity.

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

In line 5 of Where the Mind is Without Fear, Tagore wants a nation where people are truthful. They should not be superficial and words should come out from the depth of their hearts.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

In the sixth line of the poem, the poet wants everyone to work hard to reach their goal, and in the long run to reach perfection. . He thinks they should not be tired by working. People should not be lazy and ignoring their work.

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habits;

In line 7, the poet compares ‘reason’ or logical thinking to a “clear stream’ and in the next line compares ‘dead habits’ or superstitious beliefs to a ‘dreary desert’. He wants the stream of reason not to lose its way into the desert of prejudices. In short, people’s thought should be monitored by rational thinking, not by superstition; logic should rule over old baseless beliefs.

Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action;

In line 9 and 10 the poet wishes his countrymen to be progressive and broad-minded. He wants that their minds are “led forward” to “ever-widening thought and action” by the Almighty. In short, we should be open-minded and do something unusual or extraordinary, overcoming the narrowness of mind.

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

In the final line of the poem, the poet addresses the God as ‘Father’. He asks him to awaken his country into such a ‘heaven of freedom’ where the above conditions meet.

To make it clear, the poet prays to the Almighty (my Father) to raise or lift (awake) his country to such heights where freedom would be realised at its best (a heaven of freedom). In turn, he is actually praying that God awakens his countrymen so that they come out from the darkness of ignorance, prejudices, disunity and all other evils.

Annotation: Meaning of Where the Mind is Without Fear

Please note: N= noun, V=verb, Adj=Adjective, Adv=Adverb, P=Preposition, Pr=Pronoun

Fragments (N): Plural form of the word “fragment”, that is, a small part broken off or separated from something

Narrow (Adj): Limited in extent, amount, or scope

Domestic (Adj): Existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international

Tireless (Adj): Having or showing great effort or energy

Striving (V): Present participle form of the word “strive”, that is, make great efforts to achieve or obtain something

Stretches (V): Third person singular present tense of the word “stretch”, that is, straighten or extend one’s body or a part of one’s body to its full length, typically so as to tighten one’s muscles or in order to reach something

Clear (Adj): (Of a substance) transparent; unclouded

Stream (N): A small, narrow river

Dreary (Adj): Depressingly dull and bleak or repetitive

Thee (Pr): An older form of the word “you”

Ever-widening (Adj): Constantly increasing in scope

Analysis of figure of speech

ALLITERATION in Where the Mind is Without Fear:
Tagore has used alliteration in his poem, Where the Mind in without Fear. Alliteration is the repeated use of the same consonant sound at the beginning of each word in a line of verse. Here, in this poem, the examples of alliteration are as follows,-
‘head held high’, ‘where the world’, ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’ and ‘where words.’

METAPHOR:
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance. In simpler words, comparing two words but not clearly stating. Examples of metaphor in the poem,-
‘clear stream of reason’ and ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’.

PERSONIFICATION:
“a tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection” is an example of fine personification in the poem. Personification refers to attribution of human qualities to inanimate ideas. Here the ‘tireless striving’ has been personified like a human being stretching his arms to reach his goal through perfection.