Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Born on May 7, 1861, Rabindranath Tagore’s poem is inspiring in 2020 and beyond. He could be writing about overcoming this dreadful pandemic.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore