The Greatest Poems of Edwin Arnold (Illustrated Edition) (ePub)

This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.
Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work, The Light of Asia. The literary task which he set before him was the interpretation in English verse of the life and philosophy of the East. His chief work with this object is The Light of Asia, which was translated into various languages such as Hindi. The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is in a form of a narrative poem. The book endeavors to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Siddhartha, who after attaining enlightenment became The Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara. A few decades before the book's publication, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and Buddhism, the religion which he founded, and which had existed for about twenty-five centuries. Arnold's book was one of the first successful attempts to popularize Buddhism for a Western readership.
Table of Contents:
The Light of Asia
Light of the World; or, The Great Consummation:
At Bethlehem
Mary Magdalene.
The Magus.
The Alabaster Box.
The Parables.
The Love of God and Man.
The Great Consummation
Indian Poetry
The Indian Song of Songs (Hymn to Vishnu -11 Sargas)
Miscellaneous Oriental Poems:
The Rajpoot Wife
King Saladin
The Caliph's Draught
Hindoo Funeral Song
Song of the Serpent-charmers
Song of the Flour-mill
Taza ba Taza
The Mussulman Paradise
Dedication of a Poem From the Sanskrit
The Rajah's Ride
Two Books From The Iliad Of India
"The Great Journey."
"The Entry Into Heaven."
"Night of Slaughter."
The Morning Prayer.
Proverbial Wisdom From the Shlokas of the Hitopadesa...
The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita (from the Mahâbhârata)
Potiphar's Wife