The King's Lament Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BB CC DD EE FF GH II GG JJ KK LL MM NN H OO PP JJ Q FF RR SS QQ QQ TT UU VV MM HH WW XX HH Q QQ MM Q YZ A2A2 B2B2 M| Is this torturing dream or madness do my feeble senses fail | A |
| O'er my darkened mind and bosom doth a fainting fit prevail | A |
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| So the stricken monarch pondered and in hushed and silent fear | B |
| Looked on her as on a tigress looks the dazed and stricken deer | B |
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| Lying on the unswept pavement still he heaved the choking sigh | C |
| Like a wild and hissing serpent quelled by incantations high | C |
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| Sobs convulsive shook his bosom and his speech and accent failed | D |
| And a dark and deathlike faintness o'er his feeble soul prevailed | D |
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| Stunned awhile remained the monarch then in furious passion woke | E |
| And his eyeballs flamed with redfire to the queen as thus he spoke | E |
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| 'Traitress to thy king and husband fell destroyer of thy race | F |
| Wherefore seeks thy ruthless rancour Rama rich in righteous grace | F |
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| Traitress to thy kith and kindred Rama loves thee as thy own | G |
| Wherefore then with causeless vengeance as a mother hate thy son | H |
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| Have I courted thee Kaikeyi throned thee in my heart of truth | I |
| Nursed thee in my home and bosom like a snake of poisoned tooth | I |
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| Have I courted thee Kaikeyi placed thee on Ayodhya's throne | G |
| That my Rama loved of people thou shouldst banish from his own | G |
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| Banish far my Queen Kausalya Queen Sumitra saintly wife | J |
| Wrench from me my ancient empire from my bosom wrench my life | J |
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| But with brave and princely Rama never can his father part | K |
| Till his ancient life is ended cold and still his beating heart | K |
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| Sunless roll the world in darkness rainless may the harvests thrive | L |
| But from ri hteous Rama severed never can his sire survive | L |
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| Feeble is thy aged husband few and brief on earth his day | M |
| Lend me wife a woman's kindness as a consort be my stay | M |
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| Ask for other boon Kaikeyi aught my sea girt empire yields | N |
| Wealth or treasure gem or jewel castled town or smiling fields | N |
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| Ask for other gift Kaikeyi and thy wishes shall be given | H |
| Stain me not with crime unholy in the eye of righteous Heaven ' | - |
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| Coldly spake the Queen Kaikeyi 'If thy royal heart repent | O |
| Break thy word and plighted promise let thy royal faith be rent | O |
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| Ever known for truth and virtue speak to peers and monarchs all | P |
| When from near and distant regions they shall gather in thy hall | P |
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| Speak if so it please thee monarch of thy evil destined wife | J |
| How she loved with wife's devotion how she served and saved thy life | J |
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| How on plighted promise trusting for a humble boon she sighed | Q |
| How a monarch broke his promise how a cheated woman died ' | - |
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| 'Fair thy form ' resumed the monarch 'beauty dwells upon thy face | F |
| Woman's winsome charms bedeck thee and a woman's peerless grace | F |
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| Wherefore then within thy bosom wakes this thought of cruel wile | R |
| And what dark and loathsome spirit stains thy heart with blackest guile | R |
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| Ever since the day Kaikeyi when a gentle bride you came | S |
| By a wife's unfailing duty you have won a woman's fame | S |
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| Wherefore now this cruel purpose hath a stainless heart defiled | Q |
| Ruthless wish to send my Rama to the dark and pathless wild | Q |
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| Wherefore darkly scheming woman on unrighteous purpose bent | Q |
| Doth thy cruel causeless vengeance on my Rama seek a vent | Q |
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| Wherefore seek by deeds unholy for thy son the throne to win | T |
| Throne which Bharat doth not covet blackened byhis mother's sin | T |
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| Shall I see my banished Rama mantled in the garb of woe | U |
| Reft of home and kin and empire to the pathless jungle go | U |
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| Shall I see disasters sweeping o'er my empire dark and deep | V |
| As the forces of a foeman o'er a scattered army sweep | V |
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| Shall I hear assembled monarchs in their whispered voices say | M |
| Weak and foolish in his dotapre Dasa ratha holds his sway | M |
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| Shall I say to righteous elders when they blame my action done | H |
| That by woman's mandate driven I have banished thus my son | H |
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| Queen Kansalya dear loved woman she who serves me as a slave | W |
| Soothes me like a tender sister helps me like a consort brave | W |
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| As a fond and loving mother tends me with a watchful care | X |
| As a daughter ever duteous doth obeisance sweet and fair | X |
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| When my fond and fair Kausalya asks me of her banished son | H |
| How shall Dasa ratha answer for the impious action done | H |
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| How can husband cold and cruel break a wife's confiding heart | Q |
| How can father false and faithless from his best and eldest part ' | - |
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| Coldly spake the Queen Kaikeyi 'If thy royal heart repent | Q |
| Break thy word and plighted promise let thy royal faith be rent | Q |
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| Truth abiding is our monarch so I heard the people say | M |
| And his word is all inviolate stainless virtue marks his sway | M |
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| Let it now be known to nations righteous Dasa ratha lied | Q |
| And a trusting cheated woman broke her loving heart and died ' | - |
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| Darker grew the shades of midnight coldly shone each distant star | Y |
| Wilder in the monarch's bosom raged the struggle and the war | Z |
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| 'Starry midnight robed in shadows give my wearied heart relief | A2 |
| Spread thy sable covering mantle o'er an impious monarch's grief | A2 |
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| Spread thy vast and inky darkness o'er a deed of nameless crime | B2 |
| Reign perennial o'er my sorrows heedless of the lapse of time | B2 |
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| May a sinful monarch perish ere the dawning of the day | M |
| O'er a dark life sin polluted beam not morning's righteous ray ' | - |
Valmiki
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