Rabindranath pays homage to the various traditions of spiritual poetry in songs of Gitanjali. The speaker of Song 17 is a lover, presumably a woman, waiting for her beloved. She has broken all ties of the material world, cast away the labels and codes that bound her. In doing so, she has attracted much social scorn and resentment. She is a mad woman, a ‘bawari’ much like Meerabai, whose world began and ended with Krishna.

She has refused to be defined by the roles and responsibilities set for her by society. Forever engrossed in ‘waiting’ for her beloved, the speaker has attracted epithets like ‘heedless’ and ‘guilty of omissions’. However, in her consumed state, she has grown to ignore such attacks. At one point, she even agrees that she might have neglected her duties: “they are right in their blame.” There comes a time when stone pelters get tired of throwing stones. Those who vented their anger have given up and moved away. The circumstances change, but the poet-lover remains constant and unmoved, forever waiting for the beloved with one eternal desire: “Give myself up at last into his hands”.

Song 17

I am only waiting for love to give myself up at last into his hands. That is why it is so late and why I have been guilty of such omissions.

They come with their laws and their codes to bind me fast; but I evade them ever, for I am only waiting for love to give myself up at last into his hands.

People blame me and call me heedless; I doubt not they are right in their blame.

The market day is over and work is all done for the busy. Those who came to call me in vain have gone back in anger. I am only waiting for love to give myself up at last into his hands.

The sentiment in the poem above is captured beautifully in a bhajan by Meerabai. Saint Meera says how she has vowed to remain detached from the world but close to his beloved, Krishna. This rendition by Vani Jairam(music director: Pandit Ravi Shankar) is from the Hindi Movie Meera by Gulzar.