Rabitalent begins with poetry (1868 - 1869)

Rabindranath started writing poems at the age of 7-8. Rabindranath wrote in this context, "My age at that time doesn't exceed 7-8 when one of my nephew , Jyotyprakash [ son of the elder sister Kadambini of Gaganendranath and Jogneshprakas ], some older than myself, inspired me to write poems which I cannot express. . One day in the noon he called at me in his room and said, you have to write poems." Saying this he made me  understand how to write Payar [Bengali measure of verse consisting of two lines each containing 14 letters  in a line and gave me a slate and ask to construct a poem on Lotus. By that time  I became accustomed by reading Ramayana and Mahabharata, many times, to understand what is  a poetry.I wrote few lines. Jyoti encouraged me."
Jyotiprakas was the first preceptor of Rabindranath in writing poems.
Rabindranath  got some blue-coloured fulls cape papers from the family office, drawn some oblique lines and began to write, with his beginners handwriting
some lines with pencils.
His elder brother Somendranath became pleased with the talents of his brother and took the responsibility of propagating this incident. One day Somendranath asked Nabagopal Mitra, editor of National Paper, to lisson a poem written by Rabindranath. Nabaagopal Babu heard with difficulty a poem writtren by Rabindranath and asked the meaning of a letter "Dwiref" used in the poetry. Though Rabindranath himself did not know  actually the meaning of the  word still the word seemed to him very sweet and he did not want to change it.
The two poems , one written at the request of Jyotiprakas and the other narrated before Nabagopal Babu, were written with lotus as subject. Rabindranath wrote in his "chelebala' " I remember that once I wrote a poem on Lotus in Payar rythm and expressed with grief that when I wanted to catch the lotus by swimming it goes beyond my reach as I approached to touch it."
Another poem was mentioned here at this time, given below;

Rabindranath had a good fortune since he began to write poetry i blue coloured Khata. Rabindranath wrote in Jibansmriti, 1st edition, " I was afraid of my Sejdada . One day Satya took my Khata and gave it to him. When I was hiding  myself thinking that to misuse  time by writing poems would be a severe offense, in the meantime my Khata was returned without any bad remarks."