Stray Birds [Paperback]

Sir Rabindranath Tagore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

1916. Tagore was one of India's most brilliant poets and writer. A Nobel Prize winner. Gandhi called him the great sentinel. Here is the kernel of the wisdom and insight of the great Hindu seer in the form of short extracts. These sayings are largely taken from his other works, and are the essence of his Eastern message to the Western world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1861 to an influential Bengali family, Rabindranath Tagore achieved fame as a novelist, playwright, poet, painter, lecturer, politician, and composer. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, the first non-European to achieve such an honor. He died in 1941. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766182789
• ISBN-13: 978-0766182783
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,915,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Window to Tagore, September 27, 2010

By 

Reflection Haiku "Lily Wang, Author" (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stray Birds (Classic Reprint) (Paperback)

STRAY BIRDS comprises three hundred twenty six short verses or aphorisms by Tagore, the Indian Poet Laureate, whose love of nature and simplicity as well as his regal command of poetic words is crystalized by this precious volume of poetry. Tagore won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 with Gitanjali (Song Offerings) and this book, published in 1916, and translated by the poet into English himself offers new readers a quick window to peek into the greatness of the Tagore literary temple. Tagore spiritualizes nature into the experiences of human existence:

Find your beauty, my heart, from the world's movement,
like the boat that has the grace of the wind and the water (255)

The Stray Birds of summer that took flight from Tagore's window a century ago, have flown into my heart to sing and to stay.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of all his English works, this is a must have, July 27, 2010

By 

Haotian (Williamstown, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stray Birds (Classic Reprint) (Paperback)

To those unfamiliar with Tagore, he was an Indian polymath who was the first Asian to ever win a Nobel Prize for Literature. His works are culturally and religiously driven, but contain the common sense and moral aptitude that you would expect from Aesop.
To those familiar with Tagore, I highly recommend this one. The prose is almost similar to simple quotes; each "poem" is no longer than 2 or 3 sentences. However, the imagery employed gives the reader a full sense of the wonders that he is describing. You can read the whole book in one sitting, or multiple sittings since there is no plot to follow. This makes it a great reader for avid or casual readers.

25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just like the music, picture, idea, how to love and live mix, May 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Stray Birds (Paperback)

good books always let you enjoy all your life. who do not want a beautiful around you? even sometimes the spirit of the book could make you defence the difficult situation of the life and refresh you when feel very tire and disappointed for what happened in your life. I just like it and will read it again and again to rich myself. thank you for reading my writing and hope this world become better and better with the help of good books, good poems like what Tagore did here.