--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my…" description: "\"“SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen! QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Why do you come at this late hour? SERVANT...." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/901/rabindranath-tagore-383_adoration_servant-have-mercy-upon-your-servant-my_2792417.jpg" --- # SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen! QUEEN… ![“SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen! QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Why do you come at this late hour? SERVANT. When you have finished with others, that is my time. I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do. QUEEN. What can you expect when it is…” quote by Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/901/rabindranath-tagore-383_adoration_servant-have-mercy-upon-your-servant-my_2792417.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/901/rabindranath-tagore-383_adoration_servant-have-mercy-upon-your-servant-my_2792417.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/901/rabindranath-tagore-383_adoration_servant-have-mercy-upon-your-servant-my_2792417.jpg) > ““SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen! QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Why do you come at this late hour? SERVANT. When you have finished with others, that is my time. I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do. QUEEN. What can you expect when it is too late? SERVANT. Make me the gardener of your flower garden. QUEEN. What folly is this? SERVANT. I will give up my other work. I will throw my swords and lances down in the dust. Do not send me to distant courts; do not bid me undertake new conquests. But make me the gardener of your flower garden. QUEEN. What will your duties be? SERVANT. The service of your idle days. I will keep fresh the grassy path where you walk in the morning, where your feet will be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers eager for death. I will swing you in a swing among the branches of the saptaparna, where the early evening moon will struggle to kiss your skirt through the leaves. I will replenish with scented oil the lamp that burns by your bedside, and decorate your footstool with sandal and saffron paste in wondrous designs. QUEEN. What will you have for your reward? SERVANT. To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender lotus-buds and slip flower chains over your wrists; to tinge the soles of your feet with the red juice of ashoka petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there. QUEEN. Your prayers are granted, my servant, you will be the gardener of my flower garden.”” [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A servant offers to abandon war and power to serve a queen through humble, nurturing duties, seeking purpose and intimacy. **In simple terms:** The servant chooses gentle service over conquest. Key Takeaway Seek meaning in humble service. Themes service humility power love renunciation Mood reflective poetic Type dramatic dialogue When to use this quote - personal devotion - spiritual surrender - creative metaphor Key Concepts sacrificial love symbolic gardening court dynamics Questions to Reflect On - What does true service mean to you? - How can humility reshape authority? A Different Perspective The queen’s favor may be fleeting, and the servant’s labor could be undervalued. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Adoration](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adoration/) [Compassion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/compassion/) [Flower garden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flower-garden/) [Flowers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flowers/) [Gardener](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gardener/) [Gardening](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gardening/) [Love poem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love-poem/) [Prayer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayer/) [Queen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/queen/) [Servant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/servant/) [Too late](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/too-late/) [Wooing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wooing/) [Worship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worship/) ## Related quotes > [My plea therefore is this: Let us get our instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung. 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Sort of a plea of sincerity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-martin/i-think-i-sound-like-a-fella-who-s-always-making-a-plea-through-his/) Tony Martin > [Nature has no use for the plea that one 'did not know'.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-jung/nature-has-no-use-for-the-plea-that-one-did-not-know/) [Carl Jung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-jung/) > [The plea agreement negotiated by Janet Reno's Justice Department with Nora, Gene and Trisha Lum is a hoax. It allows two key players in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-klayman/the-plea-agreement-negotiated-by-janet-reno-s-justice-department-with/) Larry Klayman > [My plea...is a plea to save the children. Too many of them walk with pain and fear, in loneliness and despair. Children need sunlight...They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-b-hinckley/my-plea-is-a-plea-to-save-the-children-too-many-of-them-walk-with/) [Gordon B. Hinckley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-b-hinckley/) > [MR. KHARIS: 'Does Mr. Celine seriously suggest that the United States Government is in need of a guardian?' MR. CELINE: 'I am merely offering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-anton-wilson/mr-kharis-does-mr-celine-seriously-suggest-that-the-united-states/) [Robert Anton Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-anton-wilson/) > [“CHORUS: What canst thou plead? OEDIPUS: A plea of justice. CHORUS: How? OEDIPUS: I slew who else would me have slain; I slew without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sophocles/chorus-what-canst-thou-plead-oedipus-a-plea-of-justice-chorus-how/) [Sophocles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sophocles/) > [“Don’t fuck him.” He had no right to ask yet he couldn’t stop from making the hopeless, helpless plea. “Don’t fuck him, and don’t…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/layla-reyne/don-t-fuck-him-he-had-no-right-to-ask-yet-he-couldn-t-stop-from/) [Layla Reyne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/layla-reyne/) ## More by Rabindranath Tagore > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. 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Go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/go-not-to-the-temple-to-put-flowers-upon-the-feet-of-god-first-fill/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [The best kind of wealth is to give up inordinate desires.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/the-best-kind-of-wealth-is-to-give-up-inordinate-desires/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [Now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/now-it-is-time-to-sit-quiet-face-to-face-with-thee-and-to-sing/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [If it is necessary to die in order to live like men, what harm in dying?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/if-it-is-necessary-to-die-in-order-to-live-like-men-what-harm-in-dying/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [“Strong Mercy: My desires are many and my cry is pitiful, but ever didst thou save me by hard refusals; and this strong mercy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/strong-mercy-my-desires-are-many-and-my-cry-is-pitiful-but-ever-didst/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [The weak can be terrible because they try furiously to appear strong.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/the-weak-can-be-terrible-because-they-try-furiously-to-appear-strong/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [The movement of life has to rest in its own music.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/the-movement-of-life-has-to-rest-in-its-own-music/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [It is the docile who achieve the most impossible things in this world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/it-is-the-docile-who-achieve-the-most-impossible-things-in-this-world/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [“There, display and extravagance, in dress, in furniture, in costly entertainments, are startling. They seem to push you back into a corner, like a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/there-display-and-extravagance-in-dress-in-furniture-in-costly/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) [Explore all 596 Rabindranath Tagore quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) ## More Adoration quotes > [The answer to deep anxiety is the deep adoration of God.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-voskamp/the-answer-to-deep-anxiety-is-the-deep-adoration-of-god/) [Ann Voskamp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-voskamp/) > [“Come to Him fresh today, with no agenda but to let Him hold you. 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She spoke briskly, like I was a mess that needed to be cleaned up.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emma-cline/let-s-just-give-her-a-ride-into-town-suzanne-said-she-spoke-briskly/) [Emma Cline](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emma-cline/) > [I adore the way he looks at me sometimes, as if love is a quantity he cannot measure scientifically, because it multiplies too quickly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jodi-picoult/i-adore-the-way-he-looks-at-me-sometimes-as-if-love-is-a-quantity-he/) [Jodi Picoult](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jodi-picoult/) [Browse all 340 Adoration quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adoration/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen! QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Why do you come at this late hour? SERVANT. When you have finished with others, that is my time. I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do. QUEEN. What can you expect when it is too late? SERVANT. Make me the gardener of your flower garden. QUEEN. What folly is this? SERVANT. I will give up my other work. I will throw my swords and lances down in the dust. Do not send me to distant courts; do not bid me undertake new conquests. But make me the gardener of your flower garden. QUEEN. What will your duties be? SERVANT. The service of your idle days. I will keep fresh the grassy path where you walk in the morning, where your feet will be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers eager for death. I will swing you in a swing among the branches of the saptaparna, where the early evening moon will struggle to kiss your skirt through the leaves. I will replenish with scented oil the lamp that burns by your bedside, and decorate your footstool with sandal and saffron paste in wondrous designs. QUEEN. What will you have for your reward? SERVANT. To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender lotus-buds and slip flower chains over your wrists; to tinge the soles of your feet with the red juice of ashoka petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there. QUEEN. 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