Page:Rabindranath Tagore - A Biographical Study.djvu/31

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I
THE UNKNOWN POET
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striving to live. There is no place for rest, or peace of mind, or that meditative relief which in our country we feel to be needed for the health of our spirits."

In much the same degree in which our noisy activity over here affected him, he was able to affect us in turn by the imperturbable peace of his own bearing. He seemed to have the power to make an ordinary room, a London house, a lecture hall, a company of people, the vehicle of his Indian serenity. He went through many occasions, often very trying ones, without losing his equanimity, although he did lose his powers of work.

There was one occasion in particular which may be recalled because there were elements in it that brought East and West into new relations. The Indian students over here, many of them his disciples, had resolved to hold a festival in his honour, and in doing this were able to take advantage of the presence in London of Sarojini Naidu, a fellow-poet and an eloquent upholder of the ideals of Young India. There is no way to describe the enthusiasm of an occasion that depends for its fervour on the very voice and spirit of the hour. But by the naturalness of his re-