Asoka Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEBEEBBBB EEEEFBFFBBBB BGBGBHBBEHEHE ABIBIJBKBBJBB LBLBMIMINMNI EOEOBPBQBBBQBQ ARSRSBBBHBHEEB BBBBBBBEBEBBB TUTUBABBBBBIIV BBBWBWBBWI | 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
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