Playthings by Rabindranath Tagore.

Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore 

Rabindranath Thakur born on 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941 was a Indian polymath – poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal". He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

A Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Burdwan district and Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. By 1877 he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name.

As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist, he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

 

Playthings Theme

The poem shows how the poet feels on being a grown-up when he witness a happy child who is playing with a broken twig, showing the innocence of being a child. Even though the child has a broken twig, he is happy while the poet himself feels that he is nothing even after gaining golds and lumps

 

Playthings Poem

Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.

I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.

I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.

Perhaps you glance at me and think, "What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!"

Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.

I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps of gold and silver.

With whatever you find you create your glad games, I spend both my time and my strength over things I never can obtain.

In my frail canoe I struggle to cross the sea of desire, and forget that I too am playing a game.

 

Playthings Summary

The poet describes the play game of a child and regrets about his condition that he forgets the real charm of life in earning money. The poem opens with the observation how a child is happy even with the broken toy and plays since morning.

 

“Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning!”

 

Games are the heart and soul of a child. They enjoy it most whether it is expensive toys or broken things. Early years of child are more important to build the life. They learn from their world which is around. Play is linked to growth in memory, self-regulation, oral language, and recognizing symbols.

After all, isn’t play just an idle waste of time? Surprisingly, child psychologists and educational specialists will answer this with a resounding “No”: Play is the most effective and powerful way for young children to learn. Often it is said that play is the work of childhood, the primary method for them to learn about themselves, others and their world.

 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” ~ Albert Einstein

 

Children learn to play by birth. It is a universal activity, although it takes many forms. Indeed, children of every culture engage in play. It is true that free play that is the most influential in learning and development. Here poet finds that he is busy in the work.

 

He smiles when he learns that a child s plying with a broken twig band he is busy in making accounts and worldly maters. He is busy sine few hours in adding figures in accounts. This makes him sad that child is enjoying the life fully and in the hustle and bustle of life he forgot how to enjoy life.

 

“I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.

 

I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.”

 

 Kid plays for fun. And through his play, he gets knowledge which no one can give except the play.

 

“Knowledge arises neither from objects nor the child, but from interactions between the child and those objects.” ~ Jean Piaget

 

The play makes child to learn language, co-ordination and self esteem. But when human being gets grown up, he leaves the enjoyment of life and learns to get anxious more. Because of playing kid learns few special concepts which are necessary in life.

 

And he leans few social skills as turn taking and sharing with others. He can learn to express and imagine. Playthings teach kid to compromise in any situation. When kid plays, it learns problem solving, abstract reasoning, scientific discoveries etc.

 

Poet further thinks that if a child during play glances at him, might think that he is stupid that poet do not live life but it drags it.

 

“Perhaps you glance at me and think, “What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!”

 

This means that poet thinks that he is busy in his worldly matters e=which is according to child is stupid game. The poet knows that he lost the interest in playing like child. He says,

 

“Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mudpies.”

 

To play in dust and make pies and balls from mud is always favourite game to children. This gives to nutritious value to them. Many psychologists and doctors recommended playing in mud and dust. Play is especially beneficial to children’s learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. In other words, play happens not only when children fight and argue over who is going to be the winner and who is going to be the loser.

 

This makes him to accept few situations and circumstances. Children create specific roles-and rules-for pretend behavior and adopt multiple themes and multiple roles.

 

The game of elderly person is different. He likes costly playthings and gathers gold and silver. He likes to add the bank accounts. By heart his account is nil.

 

 ”I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps of gold and silver.”

 

When a kid loves to play whatever he finds. He enjoys the broken branch, or toy or anything else. He loves to play with dust and stones. This is least useful to human being. Man never gives importance to such trivial things. He likes to make show off to people whether he is comfortable at it or not.

 

“with whatever you find you create your glad games.

 

I spend both my time ad my strength over things I

 

Can never obtain.

 

” Here poet knows that he is using rather wasting his strength and energy in such things which will not be lifelong useful and good for him. He further says that now he realizes that he is also playing a game which will be unproductive for him.

 

In my frail conoe I struggle to cross the sea of desire,

And forgot that I too am playing a game.”

 

They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people. They learn to represent things symbolically and to regulate their behaviors and act in a deliberate, intentional way.

 

 

Today, many children do not have enough play opportunities at home because of TV, videos, and the computer and mobile. They interact with toys that are not conducive to building imagination and interesting dramatic play themes. In many instances, pretend play with siblings and neighborhood children is not available. There are more adult-organized and directed activities than in the past. Children even enjoy the company of elder too for playing on the condition that elders too enjoy the play.

 

There is no fixed age of playing. In The Post Office by the same poet, the character of Amal is very well presented. He is too interested in playing with other children but couldn’t because he is ill. As a educationalist Rabindranath Tagore too believes that children must enjoy play and games and must learn through outdoor games in lap of Nature. Thus, the poet too misses the pleasures of life which a child can enjoy.

 

It is rightly said by poet that “Child is the father of man.” in true sense how ho live life can be learnt by children. Without any worries and burden they enjoy the most. And man loses the interests and essence of life in making money only. The tile of the poem itself shows the theme of the poem that is play thing. It is seventeen lined poem with no particular rhyming scheme. It shows the modern skill of wiring.