Drona's Speech
Out spake Drona priest and warrior, and his words were few and high,Clouded was Duryodhan's forehead, wrathful was Duryodhan's eye:
"Thou hast heard the holy counsel which the righteous Krishna said,Ancient Bhishma's voice of warning thou hast in thy bosom weighed,
Peerless in their godlike wisdom are these chiefs in peace or strife,Truest friends to thee, Duryodhan, pure and sinless in their life,
Take their counsel, and thy kinsmen fasten in the bonds of peace,May the empire of the Kurus and their warlike fame increase!
List unto thy old preceptor! Faithless is thy fitful star,False they feed with hopes thy bosom, those who urge and counsel war!
Crowned kings and armed nations, they will strive for thee in vain,Vainly brothers, sons, and kinsmen will for thee their life-blood drain,
For the victor's crown and glory never, never can be thine,Krishna conquers, and brave Arjun! mark these deathless words of mine!
I have trained the youthful Arjun, seen him bend the warlike bow,Marked him charge the hostile forces, marked him smite the scattered foe!
Fiery son of Jamadagni owned no greater, loftier might,Breathes on earth no mortal warrior conquers Arjun in the fight!
Krishna too, in war resistless, comes from Dwarka's distant shore,And the bright-gods quake before him whom the fair Devaki bore!
These are foes thou may'st not conquer, take an ancient warrior's word,Act thou as thy heart decideth, thou art Kuru's king and lord!"
Words in this poem
- wrathful a.
- Full of wrath; very angry; greatly incensed; ireful; passionate; as, a wrathful man.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. Piers Plowman.
- preceptor n.
- One who gives commands, or makes rules; specifically, the master or principal of a school; a teacher; an instructor. [L. praeceptor, fr. praecipere to teach: cf. F. précepteur. See Precept.]
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Drona's Speech is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Mahabharata (condensed), Project Gutenberg ebook #19630, the Romesh Chunder Dutt translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vyasa, Drona's Speech, in The Mahabharata (condensed) (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19630, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mahabharata/drona-s-speech.html, id L15802.
Form and metre
Drona's Speech is 22 lines in 11 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 73% of the lines. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic octameter.
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 AA highA · eyeA
- 3 AA strifeA · lifeA
- 4 AA peaceA · increaseA
- 6 AA vainA · drainA
- 7 AA thineA · mineA
- 8 AA bowA · foeA
- 9 AA mightA · fightA
- 10 AA shoreA · boreA
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 trochaic octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Out spake Drona priest and warrior, and his words were few and high, | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| Clouded was Duryodhan's forehead, wrathful was Duryodhan's eye: | 15 | /˘····/˘/˘····· |
| "Thou hast heard the holy counsel which the righteous Krishna said, | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Ancient Bhishma's voice of warning thou hast in thy bosom weighed, | 15 | /˘····/˘····/˘· |
| Peerless in their godlike wisdom are these chiefs in peace or strife, | 15 | /˘··/˘/˘······· |
| Truest friends to thee, Duryodhan, pure and sinless in their life, | 15 | /˘········/˘··· |
| Take their counsel, and thy kinsmen fasten in the bonds of peace, | 15 | ··/˘····/˘····· |
| May the empire of the Kurus and their warlike fame increase! | 15 | ··/˘······/··˘/ |
| List unto thy old preceptor! Faithless is thy fitful star, | 15 | ·····˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| False they feed with hopes thy bosom, those who urge and counsel war! | 15 | ······/˘····/˘· |
| Crowned kings and armed nations, they will strive for thee in vain, | 15 | ·˘···˘/˘······· |
| Vainly brothers, sons, and kinsmen will for thee their life-blood drain, | 15 | /˘/˘··········· |
| For the victor's crown and glory never, never can be thine, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Krishna conquers, and brave Arjun! mark these deathless words of mine! | 15 | /˘/˘······/˘··· |
| I have trained the youthful Arjun, seen him bend the warlike bow, | 15 | ····/˘······/·· |
| Marked him charge the hostile forces, marked him smite the scattered foe! | 15 | ····/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Fiery son of Jamadagni owned no greater, loftier might, | 15 | /˘········/˘/˘· |
| Breathes on earth no mortal warrior conquers Arjun in the fight! | 15 | ····/˘/˘/˘····· |
| Krishna too, in war resistless, comes from Dwarka's distant shore, | 15 | /˘···˘/˘····/˘· |
| And the bright-gods quake before him whom the fair Devaki bore! | 15 | ··············· |
| These are foes thou may'st not conquer, take an ancient warrior's word, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Act thou as thy heart decideth, thou art Kuru's king and lord!" | 15 | ·····˘/˘······· |
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.