Scenes from the Ramayan, Etc

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Trübner & Company, 1868 - 196 pages

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Page 11 - Almighty ceased, but all The multitude of angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy...
Page 192 - Hunger and thirst oppress me sore, And I am faint with toil : Thou shouldst not stay a bird of prey Who claims his rightful spoil. They say thou art a glorious king, And justice is thy care : Then justly reign in thy domain, Nor rob the birds of air.' Then cried the king : ' A cow or deer For thee shall straightway bleed, Or let a ram or tender lamb Be slain, for thee to feed. Mine oath forbids me to betray My little twice-born guest : See how she clings with trembling wings To her protector's breast.
Page 170 - There girt with emerald steps a bright lake gleams, Where the gold lotus fires the lily's white : The swans that sail upon its silver streams Shall hail thy coming with renewed delight, And love the cool waves better for the sight That bids them linger near the pleasant shore, Without a wish to seek in distant flight The mountain lake that seemed so dear before, That lovely mountain lake now scarce remembered more.
Page 124 - Say that the fiend has borne away his wife, His own true Sita, dearer than his life ; He will regain the spouse he loves so well, Yea, if they bore her to the depths of Hell." Down to her feet her loosened tresses hung, As, like a creeper, with twined arms she clung To bough and branch, and, falling on her knees, Shrieked out for succour to the mighty trees. Then Ravan's giant hand, unused to spare, Seized her again by her long flowing hair : Vengeance on thee that cursed touch shall bring, And stain...
Page xii - Nowhere else are poetry and morality so charmingly united, each elevating the other as in this really holy poem.
Page 153 - Sprung from the blood of countless oxen shed. The sacrifice of the horse or of the cow, the g6m4dha or aswamtdd, appears to have been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu ritual. It has been conceived, that the sacrifice was not real but typical, and that the form of sacrificing only was performed upon the victim, after which it was set at liberty. The text of this passage, however, is unfavourable to such a notion, as the metamorphosis of the blood of the kine into a river, certainly implies...
Page 115 - Seeta heard the cry, and entreated Lakshman to fly to his brother's rescue. He was unwilling to go, but yielded to her earnestness, and she was left alone. This being the state of affairs which Ravana desired, he now left his hiding-place, and came forward...
Page 123 - Aid her, ye Spirits ! Ah, all wild with dread Each nymph and faun before the fiend had fled. Where, where is Rama ? Rama roams afar, And Ravan bears her to his magic car. With angry threats the giant tried to still Her cries for aid, but very long and shrill Rang forth her lamentation through the air, As of one raving in her great despair :
Page 195 - Their parents' joy and hope and stay ; Who welcome to their homes the guest, And banish envy from their breast ; With reverent study love to pore On precepts of our sacred lore ; Who work not, speak not, think not sin, In body pure and pure within ; Whom avarice can ne'er mislead To guilty thought or sinful deed ; Whose fancy never seeks to roam From the dear wives who cheer their home ; Whose hero souls cast fear away When battling in a rightful fray ; Who speak the truth with dying breath Undaunted...
Page 11 - Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood, And saw the ravens with their horny beaks Food to Elijah bringing, even and morn ; Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought.

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