Krishna to the Rescue
Krishna knew the sons of Pandu though in robes of Brahmans dressed,To his elder, Valadeva, thus his inner thoughts expressed:
"Mark that youth with bow and arrow and with lion's lordly gait,He is helmet-wearing Arjun! greatest warrior midst the great,
Mark his mate, with tree uprooted how he meets the suitor band,Save the tiger-waisted Bhima none can claim such strength of hand!
And the youth with eyes like lotus, he who left the court erewhile,He is pious-souled Yudhishthir, man without a sin or guile,
And the others by Yudhishthir, Pandu's twin-born sons are they,With these sons the righteous Pritha 'scaped where death and danger lay,
For the jealous, fierce Duryodhan darkly schemed their death by fire,But the righteous sons of Pandu 'scaped his unrelenting ire!"
Krishna rose amidst the monarchs, strove the tumult to appease,And unto the angry suitors spake in words of righteous peace,
Monarchs bowed to Krishna's mandate, left Panchala's festive land,Arjun took the beauteous princess, gently led her by the hand.
Words in this poem
- suitor n.
- One who sues, petitions, or entreats; a petitioner; an applicant.
- erewhile adv.
- Some time ago; a little while before; heretofore.
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Krishna to the Rescue 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, Krishna to the Rescue, in The Mahabharata (condensed) (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19630, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mahabharata/krishna-to-the-rescue.html, id L15770.
Form and metre
Krishna to the Rescue is 16 lines in 8 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 dressedA · expressedA
- 2 AA gaitA · greatA
- 3 AA bandA · handA
- 4 AA erewhileA · guileA
- 5 AA theyA · layA
- 6 AA fireA · ireA
- 8 AA landA · handA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Krishna knew the sons of Pandu though in robes of Brahmans dressed, | 15 | /˘············· |
| To his elder, Valadeva, thus his inner thoughts expressed: | 15 | ··/˘······/˘·˘/ |
| "Mark that youth with bow and arrow and with lion's lordly gait, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘/˘· |
| He is helmet-wearing Arjun! greatest warrior midst the great, | 15 | ··/˘/˘··/˘/˘··· |
| Mark his mate, with tree uprooted how he meets the suitor band, | 15 | ·····˘/˘····/˘· |
| Save the tiger-waisted Bhima none can claim such strength of hand! | 15 | ··/˘/˘········· |
| And the youth with eyes like lotus, he who left the court erewhile, | 17 | ······/˘········· |
| He is pious-souled Yudhishthir, man without a sin or guile, | 15 | ··/˘··········· |
| And the others by Yudhishthir, Pandu's twin-born sons are they, | 15 | ··/˘··········· |
| With these sons the righteous Pritha 'scaped where death and danger lay, | 15 | ····/˘······/˘· |
| For the jealous, fierce Duryodhan darkly schemed their death by fire, | 16 | ··/˘····/˘····/˘ |
| But the righteous sons of Pandu 'scaped his unrelenting ire!" | 15 | ··/˘·······˘/˘· |
| Krishna rose amidst the monarchs, strove the tumult to appease, | 15 | /˘·˘/·/···/˘·˘/ |
| And unto the angry suitors spake in words of righteous peace, | 15 | ····/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Monarchs bowed to Krishna's mandate, left Panchala's festive land, | 15 | /···/˘/·····/˘· |
| Arjun took the beauteous princess, gently led her by the hand. | 16 | ····/˘˘/˘/˘····· |
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.