The Poetical Works

Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work, The Light of Asia. The literary task which he set before him was the interpretation in English verse of the life and philosophy of the East. His chief work with this object is The Light of Asia, which was translated into various languages such as Hindi. The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is in a form of a narrative poem. The book endeavors to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Siddhartha, who after attaining enlightenment became The Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara. A few decades before the book's publication, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and Buddhism, the religion which he founded, and which had existed for about twenty-five centuries. Arnold's book was one of the first successful attempts to popularize Buddhism for a Western readership. Table of Contents: - The Light of Asia - Light of the World; or, The Great Consummation: - At Bethlehem - Mary Magdalene. - The Magus. - The Alabaster Box. - The Parables. - The Love of God and Man. - The Great Consummation - Indian Poetry - The Indian Song of Songs (Hymn to Vishnu -11 Sargas) - Miscellaneous Oriental Poems: - The Rajpoot Wife - King Saladin - The Caliph's Draught - Hindoo Funeral Song - Song of the Serpent-charmers - Song of the Flour-mill - Taza ba Taza - The Mussulman Paradise - Dedication of a Poem From the Sanskrit - The Rajah's Ride - Two Books From The Iliad Of India - "The Great Journey." - "The Entry Into Heaven." - "Night of Slaughter." - The Morning Prayer. - Proverbial Wisdom From the Shlokas of the Hitopadesa... - The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita (from the Mahâbhârata) - Potiphar's Wife