Vidura's Speech
Then in gentler voice Vidura sought his pensive mind to tell,From his lips serene and softly words of woe and anguish fell:
"Not for thee I grieve, Duryodhan, slain by vengeance fierce and keen,For thy father weeps my bosom and the aged Kuru queen!
Sons and grandsons, friends and kinsmen slaughtered in this fatal war,Homeless, cheerless, on this wide earth they shall wander long and far!
Friendless, kinless, on this wide earth whither shall they turn and fly?Like some bird bereft of plumage, they shall pine awhile and die!
Of their race and sad survivors, they shall wander o'er the earth,Curse the fatal day, Duryodhan, saw thy sad and woeful birth!"
Words in this poem
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- friendless a.
- Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vidura'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, Vidura's Speech, in The Mahabharata (condensed) (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19630, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mahabharata/vidura-s-speech.html, id L15803.
Form and metre
Vidura's Speech is 10 lines in 5 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.9 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 tellA · fellA
- 2 AA keenA · queenA
- 4 AA flyA · dieA
- 5 AA earthA · birthA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Then in gentler voice Vidura sought his pensive mind to tell, | 15 | ··/˘······/˘··· |
| From his lips serene and softly words of woe and anguish fell: | 15 | ···˘/·/˘····/˘· |
| "Not for thee I grieve, Duryodhan, slain by vengeance fierce and keen, | 15 | ··········/˘··· |
| For thy father weeps my bosom and the aged Kuru queen! | 14 | ··/˘··/˘······ |
| Sons and grandsons, friends and kinsmen slaughtered in this fatal war, | 15 | ··/·····/˘··/˘· |
| Homeless, cheerless, on this wide earth they shall wander long and far! | 15 | /˘/˘······/˘··· |
| Friendless, kinless, on this wide earth whither shall they turn and fly? | 15 | /˘······/˘····· |
| Like some bird bereft of plumage, they shall pine awhile and die! | 15 | ···˘/·/˘···˘/·· |
| Of their race and sad survivors, they shall wander o'er the earth, | 15 | ·····˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Curse the fatal day, Duryodhan, saw thy sad and woeful birth!" | 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.