Rabindranath Tagore (May 7, 1861 – August 7,1941) was an Indian writer who wrote the poetry on which the text of "A Song of Light!" is based. Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, due partly to his work on "Gitanjali". "Gitanjali" (or "Song Offerings") includes 103 English poems which Tagore himself translated from the poems he originally wrote in Bengali first published in 1910. Verse 57, which describes an exuberant, joyful light, is the primary basis for the text of "A Song of Light!". The text also includes references to other "Gitanjali" verses, such as verse 3 which connects music and light.