Mahomed Akram's Appeal to the Stars
Oh, Silver Stars that shine on what I love,Touch the soft hair and sparkle in the eyes,--Send, from your calm serenity above,Sleep to whom, sleepless, here, despairing lies.
Broken, forlorn, upon the Desert sandThat sucks these tears, and utterly abased,Looking across the lonely, level land,With thoughts more desolate than any waste.
Planets that shine on what I so adore,Now thrown, the hour is late, in careless rest,Protect that sleep, which I may watch no more,I, the cast out, dismissed and dispossessed.
Far in the hillside camp, in slumber liesWhat my worn eyes worship but never see.Happier Stars! your myriad silver eyesFeast on the quiet face denied to me.
Loved with a love beyond all words or sense,Lost with a grief beyond the saltest tear,So lovely, so removed, remote, and henceSo doubly and so desperately dear!
Stars! from your skies so purple and so calm,That through the centuries your secrets keep,Send to this worn-out brain some Occult Balm,Send me, for many nights so sleepless, sleep.
And ere the sunshine of the Desert jarsMy sense with sorrow and another day,Through your soft Magic, oh, my Silver Stars!Turn sleep to Death in some mysterious way.
Words in this poem
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- abased a.
- Lowered; humbled.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- desperately adv.
- In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly; extremely; as, the troops fought desperately.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mahomed Akram's Appeal to the Stars is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Mahomed Akram's Appeal to the Stars, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/mahomed-akram-s-appeal-to-the-stars.html, id L22579.
Form and metre
Mahomed Akram's Appeal to the Stars is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB loveA · eyesB · aboveA · liesB
- 2 ABAB sandA · abasedB · landA · wasteB
- 3 ABAB adoreA · restB · moreA · dispossessedB
- 4 ABAB liesA · seeB · eyesA · meB
- 5 ABAB senseA · tearB · henceA · dearB
- 6 ABAB calmA · keepB · balmA · sleepB
- 7 ABAB jarsA · dayB · starsA · wayB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, Silver Stars that shine on what I love, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Touch the soft hair and sparkle in the eyes,-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Send, from your calm serenity above, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Sleep to whom, sleepless, here, despairing lies. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Broken, forlorn, upon the Desert sand | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| That sucks these tears, and utterly abased, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Looking across the lonely, level land, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘/˘· |
| With thoughts more desolate than any waste. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Planets that shine on what I so adore, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Now thrown, the hour is late, in careless rest, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Protect that sleep, which I may watch no more, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| I, the cast out, dismissed and dispossessed. | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Far in the hillside camp, in slumber lies | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| What my worn eyes worship but never see. | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Happier Stars! your myriad silver eyes | 10 | /˘··/˘˘/˘· |
| Feast on the quiet face denied to me. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Loved with a love beyond all words or sense, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lost with a grief beyond the saltest tear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| So lovely, so removed, remote, and hence | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| So doubly and so desperately dear! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘· |
| Stars! from your skies so purple and so calm, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That through the centuries your secrets keep, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Send to this worn-out brain some Occult Balm, | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| Send me, for many nights so sleepless, sleep. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And ere the sunshine of the Desert jars | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| My sense with sorrow and another day, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Through your soft Magic, oh, my Silver Stars! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Turn sleep to Death in some mysterious way. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.