Quotes from book
The Light of Asia

Name: The Light of Asia
Author: Edwin Arnold

Edwin ArnoldOriginal title The Light of Asia, The Great Renunciation (British English, 1879)

The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is a book by Sir Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879.

“Below the highest sphere four Regents sit
Who rule our world, and under them are zones
Nearer, but high, where saintliest spirits dead
Wait thrice ten thousand years, then live again;
And on Lord Buddha, waiting in that sky,
Came for our sakes the five sure signs of birth
So that the Devas knew the signs, and said
"Buddha will go again to help the World."
"Yea!" spake He, "now I go to help the World.
This last of many times; for birth and death
End hence for me and those who learn my Law.
I will go down among the Sakyas,
Under the southward snows of Himalay,
Where pious people live and a just King."”

Edwin Arnold book The Light of Asia

Book The First.
The Light of Asia (1879)

“Now, when our Lord was come to eighteen years,
The King commanded that there should be built
Three stately houses, one of hewn square beams
With cedar lining, warm for winter days;
One of veined marbles, cool for summer heat;
And one of burned bricks, with blue tiles bedecked,
Pleasant at seed-time, when the champaks bud--
Subha, Suramma, Ramma, were their names.
Delicious gardens round about them bloomed,
Streams wandered wild and musky thickets stretched,
With many a bright pavilion and fair lawn
In midst of which Siddartha strayed at will,
Some new delight provided every hour;
And happy hours he knew, for life was rich,
With youthful blood at quickest; yet still came
The shadows of his meditation back,
As the lake's silver dulls with driving clouds.”

Edwin Arnold book The Light of Asia

Book The Second.
The Light of Asia (1879)

“The Buddhas who have been and who shall be, of these am I and what they did, I do.”

Edwin Arnold book The Light of Asia

The Light of Asia (1879)

Similar authors

Edwin Arnold6

British poet and journalist 1832–1904

Walt Whitman181

American poet, essayist and journalist None

Robert Southey51

British poet None

Jan Neruda7

Czech poet, theater reviewer, publicist and writer None

Alphonse Karr3

French critic, journalist, and novelist None

Ambrose Bierce204

American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… None

George Eliot300

English novelist, journalist and translator None

George Gordon Byron227

English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement None

José Martí103

Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader None

Heinrich Heine61

German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic None