Rabindranath’s Bonobani: A Poet’s Homage to Nature

Abstract

In a letter written to Tejesh Chandra Sen from Vienna in October 23, 1926, Rabindranath expressed a deeper urge to be one with the trees at Santiniketan and admitted, “Whenever my mind cries for freedom, of all that I remember are the trees close to my door” (Rachanabali 8: 87, Translation is mine). Such a longing expresses an intense proximity with Nature, which the poet experienced throughout his life. This epistolary witness of the poet’s friendship with Nature forms the “Introduction” to his Bonobani (1931), a volume of poetry where most of the poems are dedicated to the trees of his Ashrama at Santiniketan. In this paper I shall attempt to analyse some of the poems of Bonobani to explore Rabindranath’s perception of Nature as represented in his poetic practice.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199392090.2025.25-32.