Fireflies

A friend gave me a copy of this book when I was entering the India X Peace Corps training project in 1964. "To be read in times of stress, but also happiness," it says inside the flyleaf. That just says it all. You don't need to think you enjoy poetry to treasure this book. Tagore captures moment after moment of the human experience, pierces each with an insight of his own and shares it with the reader. In a sense it bears a similarity to those little books of daily prayers or 'thoughts for the day' people used to hand you when they came to the door uninvited to explain to you what you should believe to mold yourself to a nearer model of what they, themselves believed. But it's a lot more than that. Tagore isn't pushy. He soaks in to your conciousness the way water enters a sponge, and he stays there.I think a copy of this book ought to be by the bedside in every home in America to be read during those times when the weight of our submersion in this reality seems too heavy to bear, or when the joys lift us too high.

This book speaks directly to the soul. Its poems are concise yet beautifully eloquent. When I read them, I am re-awakened to an inner knowing of beauty and love and creative spirit. I am also reminded of the timelessness and constancy of truth. "Fireflies" is a book to return to again and again.

Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore is one of the most beautiful books that I have ever read. I am not an expert on Asian literature; so, I cannot give very much background on the poems presented her. What I can say is that every poem in here is a beautiful and is a perfect thought no matter where it came from or who is reading it. This collection by the Nobel Prize winner is made up of fireflies. They are each only three to six lines long and present a single thought. The poems flow together very cohesively. Tagore covers many different subjects. He speaks of innocense, nature, power, bigotry, freedom, death, and love. In short, Tagore writes about life. My favorite was the last: "Before the end of my journey/may I reach within myself/the one which is the all,/leaving the outer shell/to float away with the drifting multitude/upon the current of chance and change."I also liked:"Love is an endless mystery,/for it has nothing else to explain it."Few books flow as well as this one does. It enlightens the reader through the entire book and will express into words some feelings that all people have (as good poetry should do). Anyone who loved The Prophet by Gibran would love this book as well. It is somewhat forgotten among readers of today (I'm 18, and I guarantee that no other person in my high school has read this), but it should definately not be.