Tagore & Poetry Chicago

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At the outset I must confess that the present endeavor owes its existence firstly to world-wide-web and in equal measure to the initial support and cooperation received from Mr. Fred Sasaki, Assistant Editor of Poetry, Chicago and his team.

It was almost three years ago that I came across the website of Poetry. While working on the English Gitanjali, I had come across excerpts from an article Ezra Pound had written about Tagore and published in Poetry. I requested for a copy of the complete article. Fred Sasaki promptly provided me with a scanned copy of the article, sent me all references to Tagore in Dear Editor: A History of POETRY in Letters, edited by Joseph Parisi and Stephen Young and gifted me with one year's subscription to Poetry. Subsequently, while sending me the scanned pages containing all the Tagore poems published in different issues of Poetry, spread over four years (1912-16), he also directed me to David Pavelich, Bibliographer for Modern Poetry at University of Chicago Library, where Harriet Monroe, Harriet Moody and Poetry papers are available. It was David Pavelich who provided me with scans of Tagore poems submitted co Poetry along with letters of Tagore addressed to Harriet Monroe.

Study of these scanned images revealed: 1. Text of Tagore poems published in Poetry differs from the text in published versions of these poems.

2. In one instance, two Tagore poems have been published in Poetry as a single poem.

3. There may be some hitherto unknown English poems - translated or otherwise — by Tagore in these papers.

4. Alice Oliver Henderson, six year old daughter of Alice Corbin Henderson, Assistant Editor of Poetry, was ‘Tagore's ‘Fairy Queen; ‘Alice in Wonderland’ etc.

It was at the instance of Professor Swapan Majumdar thar a detailed report on this subject was undertaken. For all the assistance and information received I am indeed indebted to Fred Sasaki and Gina Rosemellia at Poetry Foundation, Chicago, David Pavelich, at University of Chicago Library at Chicago, Elspeth Healey, Public Services Intern, at Harry Ransom Centre, University of Texas, Austin and of course Professor Swapan Majumdar. Ms. Supriya Roy was also helpful in checking the archives of Rabindra Bhavana on my behalf as was Utpal Micra. I express my sincere gratitude to all of them.

It was Poetry that introduced Tagore to the American literary scene and through Poetry, he developed personal contacts which were mutually cherished for a long time. I hope the present endeavor illuminates Tagore’s Poetry connection and will be useful to future researchers.

**Contents and Sample Pages**