The Royal Tombs of Golconda
I muse among these silent fanesWhose spacious darkness guards your dust;Around me sleep the hoary plainsThat hold your ancient wars in trust.I pause, my dreaming spirit hears,Across the wind's unquiet tides,The glimmering music of your spears,The laughter of your royal brides.
In vain, O Kings, doth time aspireTo make your names oblivion's sport,While yonder hill wears like a tierThe ruined grandeur of your fort.Though centuries falter and decline,Your proven strongholds shall remainEmbodied memories of your line,Incarnate legends of your reign.
O Queens, in vain old Fate decreedYour flower-like bodies to the tomb;Death is in truth the vital seedOf your imperishable bloomEach new-born year the bulbuls singTheir songs of your renascent loves;Your beauty wakens with the springTo kindle these pomegranate groves.
Words in this poem
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- unquiet v. t.
- To disquiet. Ld. Herbert. [1st pref. un- + quiet.]
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- 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,]
- incarnate a.
- Not in the flesh; spiritual. [Pref. in- not + carnate.]
- renascent a.
- Springing or rising again into being; being born again, or reproduced. [L. renascens, p. pr. of renasci to be born again; pref. re- re- + nasci to be born. See Nascent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Royal Tombs of Golconda is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, The Royal Tombs of Golconda, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/the-royal-tombs-of-golconda.html, id L27513.
Form and metre
The Royal Tombs of Golconda is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCDCD fanesA · dustB · plainsA · trustB · hearsC · tidesD · spearsC · bridesD
- 2 -A-ABCBC aspire · sportA · tier · fortA · declineB · remainC · lineB · reignC
- 3 ABABC-C- decreedA · tombB · seedA · bloomB · singC · loves · springC · groves
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I muse among these silent fanes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whose spacious darkness guards your dust; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Around me sleep the hoary plains | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That hold your ancient wars in trust. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I pause, my dreaming spirit hears, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Across the wind's unquiet tides, | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| The glimmering music of your spears, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The laughter of your royal brides. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In vain, O Kings, doth time aspire | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To make your names oblivion's sport, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| While yonder hill wears like a tier | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The ruined grandeur of your fort. | 8 | ·/˘˘/··· |
| Though centuries falter and decline, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Your proven strongholds shall remain | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| Embodied memories of your line, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| Incarnate legends of your reign. | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| O Queens, in vain old Fate decreed | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Your flower-like bodies to the tomb; | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Death is in truth the vital seed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of your imperishable bloom | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Each new-born year the bulbuls sing | 8 | ········ |
| Their songs of your renascent loves; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Your beauty wakens with the spring | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To kindle these pomegranate groves. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
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.