Analysis of The Himalayas
Allama Muhammad Iqbal 1877 (Sialkot, Punjab) – 1938 (Lahore, Punjab)
O Himalah! O rampart of the realm of India!
Bowing down, the sky kisses your forehead
Your condition does not show any signs of old age
You are young in the midst of day and night's alternation
The Kalâm of ñër Sân« witnessed but one Effulgence
For the discerning eye you are an embodiment of Effulgence
To the outward eye you are a mere mountain range
In reality you are our sentinel, you are India's rampart
You are the diwan whose opening verse is the sky
You lead Man to the solitudes of his heart's retreat
Snow has endowed you with the turban of honour
Which scoffs at the crown of the world-illuminating sun
Antiquity is but a moment of your bygone age
Dark clouds are encamped in your valleys
Your peaks are matching with the pleiades in elegance
Though you are standing on earth your abode is sky's expanse
The stream in your flank is a fast flowing mirror
For which the breeze is working like a kerchief
The mountain top's lightning has given a whip
In the hands of cloud for the ambling horse
O Himalah! Are you like a theater stage
Which nature's hand has made for its elements?
Ah! How the cloud is swaying in excessive joy
The cloud like an unchained elephant is speeding
Gentle movement of the morning zephyr is acting like a cradle
Every flower bud is swinging with intoxication of existence
The flower bud's silence with the petal's tongue is saying
'I have never experienced the jerk of the florist's hand
Silence itself is relating the tale of mine
The corner of nature's solitude is the abode of mine'
The brook is melodiously descending from the high land
Putting the waves of Kawthar and Tasnâm to embarrassment
As if showing the mirror to Nature's beauty
Now evading now rowing against the rock in its way
Play in passing this orchestra of beautiful music
O wayfarer! The heart comprehends your music
When the night's Lailah unfurls her long hair
The sound of water-falls allures the heart
That silence of the night whose beauty surpasses speech
That state of silent meditation overshadowing the trees
That dusk's beauty which shivers along the mountain range
Very beautiful looks this rouge on your cheeks
O Himalah! Do relate to us some stories of the time
When your valleys became abode of Man's ancestors
Relate something of the life without sophistication
Which had not been stained by the rouge of sophistication
O Imagination! Bring back that period
O Vicissitudes of Time speed backwards
Scheme | AX BC DD EA XX FC BD DD FX XD BD XG XD GH II HX XX JJ FX XD ED XD CC XD |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011100 1010110110 1010111101111 1110011101100 011111110111 100101111010011 101011101101 0101110100111001 110111001101 11110111101 11011101011 1110110101001 0100110101111 111010110 1111010100100 11110111011101 010111011010 11011101010 01011011001 00111101001 1111101001 11011111100 110111000101 01111100110 10101010101101010 100101110100101010 0101101011110 11100100011011 100110100111 01011010100111 01110101011 10011101110100 111001011010 10101100101011 10101100110010 110101110 10111011 011101101 1101011100101 111100101010001 1110110010101 10100111111 1110111110101 111001011110 0110101010010 1111110110010 10010111100 1010011110 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,389 |
Words | 427 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 24 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 82 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 2:12 min read
- 109 Views
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"The Himalayas" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1581/the-himalayas>.
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