Rabindranath as a poet (Bhanu Singha)

Rabindranath started writing alphabets in 1866 at the age 5, he was admitted to school, first in Oriental Seminary and then to Normal Schhol in 1868 at the age of seven, and he started writing poetry in 1869 at the age of eight, just after  one year of attending Normal School. He was urged by his elder brother, Somendranath, to recite these poems to people in the mansion - including a  Brahmo Nationalist, a news paper editor and organizer of Hindu Mela. He became known as a poet in Normal School where he impressed his teachers of his ability in writing poetry.
He was born in an atmosphere where literary magazines were published, musical recitals were held, and theatre performed. He was influenced by his elder brothers like Dwijendranath, Satyendranath, Jyotirindranath, Hemendranath and others who were always engaged in literary and cultural activities.
In 1874, at th age of thirteen, his first  poem Abhilash (desire) was published under the alias, Bhanu Singha.

In the opinion of Rabindranath there should be freedom of reading even to the boys. He was not in favor of putting  any bar of age to readers. Might be that the juniors were not in a position to understand the difficult portion of the text. In boyhood days he used to read all the books, magazines, even those which he might  not understand. He tried to follow the meaning with his imagination.

There was a big library of old books and magazines in Thakur Bari,  kept under lock and key for safety. Rabindranath managed to get the key  and open the almirah. He was in the habit reading  books and magazines. He read BIBIDHA BHARATI SANGRAHA of Rajendra Lal Mitra, Novel of Krishnakumari, books of Science and Anthropology, a small paper ABODH BANDHU and Banga Darshan of Bankim Chandra. He was fond of reading classical books of Sarada Charan Mitra and Akshoy Sarker  and of Bidyapati written in Maithali language. He used to collect all the magazines of which Dwijendranath and Jyotirindranath were customers and read them. He also took notes of the difficult portions from those writings.

He gathered, by this time, a vast knowledge in Bengali, Sanskrit, and English by learning at home.

He got Akshoy Chandra Choudhury, a friend of Jyotirindranath, as his beloved guide for Bengali literature of Baishnabpadabali, Kabikankan, Ramprasad, Bharatchandra, Haruthakur, Rambasu, Nidhubabu, Sreedhar etc.