Asoka Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEBEEBBBB EEEEFBFFBBBB BGBGBHBBEHEHE ABIBIJBKBBJBB LBLBMIMINMNI EOEOBPBQBBBQBQ ARSRSBBBHBHEEB BBBBBBBEBEBBB TUTUBABBBBBIIV BBBWBWBBW| I | A |
| Gentle as fine rain falling from the night | B |
| The first beams from the Indian moon at full | C |
| Steal through the boughs and brighter and more bright | B |
| Glide like a breath a fragrance visible | D |
| Asoka round him sees | E |
| The gloom ebb into glories half espied | B |
| Of glimmering bowers through wavering traceries | E |
| Pale as a rose by magical degrees | E |
| Opening the air breaks into beauty wide | B |
| And yields a mystic sweet | B |
| And shapes of leaves shadow the pathway side | B |
| Around Asoka's feet | B |
| - | |
| O happy prince From his own court he steals | E |
| Weary of words is he weary of throngs | E |
| How this wide ecstasy of stillness heals | E |
| His heart of flatteries and the tale of wrongs | E |
| Unseen he climbs the hill | F |
| Unheard he brushes with his cloak the dew | B |
| While the young moonbeams every hollow fill | F |
| With hovering flowers so gradual and so still | F |
| As if a joy brimmed where that radiance grew | B |
| Discovering pale gold | B |
| Of spikenard balls and champak buds that new | B |
| Upon the air unfold | B |
| - | |
| He gains the ridge Wide open rolls the night | B |
| Airs from an infinite horizon blow | G |
| Down holy Ganges floating vast and bright | B |
| Through old Magadha's forests Far below | G |
| He hears the cool wave fret | B |
| On rocky islands soft as moths asleep | H |
| Come moonlit sails there on a parapet | B |
| Of ruined marble where the moss gleams wet | B |
| And from black cedars a lone peacock cries | E |
| Uncloaking rests Asoka bathing deep | H |
| In silence and his eyes | E |
| Of his own realm the wondrous prospect reap | H |
| At last aloud he sighs | E |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | A |
| How ennobling it is to taste | B |
| Of the breath of a living power | I |
| The shepherd boy on the waste | B |
| Whose converse hour by hour | I |
| Is alone with the stars and the sun | J |
| His days are glorified | B |
| And the steersman floating on | K |
| Down this great Ganges tide | B |
| He is blest to be companion of the might | B |
| Of waters and unwearied winds that run | J |
| With him by day by night | B |
| He knows not whence they come but they his path provide | B |
| - | |
| But O more noble far | L |
| From the heart of power to proceed | B |
| As the beam flows forth from the star | L |
| As the flower unfolds on the reed | B |
| It is not we that are strong | M |
| But the cause the divine desire | I |
| The longing wherewith we long | M |
| O flame far springing from the eternal fire | I |
| Feed feed upon my heart till thou consume | N |
| These bonds that do me wrong | M |
| Of time and chance and doom | N |
| And I into thy radiance grow and glow entire | I |
| - | |
| For he who his own strength trusts | E |
| And by violence hungers to tame | O |
| Men and the earth to his lusts | E |
| Though mighty he falls in shame | O |
| As a great fell tiger whose sound | B |
| The small beasts quake to hear | P |
| When he stretches his throat to the shuddering ground | B |
| And roars for blood yet a trembling deer | Q |
| Brings him at last to his end | B |
| In a winter torrent falls his murderous bound | B |
| His raging claws the unheeding waters rend | B |
| Down crags they toss him sheer | Q |
| With sheep ignobly drowned | B |
| And his fierce heart is burst with fury of its fear | Q |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | A |
| Not so ye deal | R |
| Immortal Powers with him | S |
| Who in his weak hour hath made haste to kneel | R |
| Where your divine springs out of mystery brim | S |
| And carries thence through the world's uproar rude | B |
| A clear eyed fortitude | B |
| As the poor diver on the Arabian strand | B |
| From the scorched rocky ledges plunging deep | H |
| Glides down the rough dark brine with questing hand | B |
| Until he feels upleap | H |
| Founts of fresh water and his goatskin swells | E |
| And bears him upward on those buoyant wells | E |
| Back with a cool boon for his thirsting land | B |
| - | |
| I also thirst | B |
| O living springs for you | B |
| Would that I might drink now as when at first | B |
| Life shone about me glorious and all true | B |
| And I abounded in your strength indeed | B |
| Which now I sorely need | B |
| You have not failed 'tis I Yet this abhorred | B |
| Necessity to hate and to despise | E |
| 'Twas not for this my youthful longing soared | B |
| Not thus would I grow wise | E |
| Keep my heart tender still that still is set | B |
| To love without foreboding or regret | B |
| Even as this tender moonlight is outpoured | B |
| - | |
| Now now even now | T |
| Sleep doth the sad world take | U |
| To peace it knows not Radiant Sleep wilt thou | T |
| Unveil thy wonder for me too who wake | U |
| O my soul melts into immensity | B |
| And yet 'tis I 'tis I | A |
| A wave upon a silent ocean thrilled | B |
| Up from its deepest deeps without a sound | B |
| Without a shore to break on or a bound | B |
| Until the world be filled | B |
| O mystery of peace O more profound | B |
| Than pain or joy upbuoy me on thy power | I |
| Stay stay ador d hour | I |
| I am lost I am found again | V |
| My soul is as a fountain springing in the rain '' | - |
| - | |
| Long long upon that cedarn shadowed height | B |
| Musing Asoka mingled with the night | B |
| At last the moon sank o'er the forest wide | B |
| Within his soul those fountains welled no more | W |
| Yet breathed a balm still fresh as fallen dew | B |
| The mist coiled upward over Ganges shore | W |
| And he arose and sighed | B |
| And gathered his cloak round him and anew | B |
| Threaded the deep woods to his palace door | W |
Robert Laurence Binyon
(1)
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About Asoka
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