arth remain,
To higher spheres shalt thou arise
And dwell with me above the skies."

He spoke, and vanished into air,
And left Valmiki wondering there.
The pupils of the holy man,
Moved by their love of him, began
To chant that verse, and ever more
They marvelled as they sang it o'er:
"Behold, the four-lined balanced rime,
Repeated over many a time,
In words that from the hermit broke
In shock of grief, becomes a sloke."
This measure now Valmiki chose
Wherein his story to compose.
In hundreds of such verses, sweet
With equal lines and even feet,
The saintly poet, lofty-souled,
The glorious deeds of Rama told.

Canto III. The Argument.

The hermit thus with watchful heed
Received the poem's pregnant seed,
And looked with eager thought around
If fuller knowledge might be found.
His lips with water first bedewed,(51)
He sate, in reverent attitude
On holy grass,(52) the points all bent
Together toward the orient;(53)
And thus in meditation he
Entered the path of poesy.
Then clearly, through his virtue's might,
All lay discovered to his sight,
Whate'er befell, through all their life,
Rama, his brother, and his wife:
And Dasaratha and each queen
At every time, in every scene:
His people too, of every sort;
The nobles of his princely court:
Whate'er was said, whate'er decreed,
Each time they sate each plan and deed:
For holy thought and fervent rite
Had so refined his keener sight
That by his sanctity his view
The present, past, and future knew,
And he with mental eye could grasp,
Like fruit within his fingers clasp,
The life of Rama, great and good,
Roaming with Sita in the wood.
He told, with secret-piercing eyes,
The tale of Rama's high emprise,
Each listening ear that shall entice,
A sea of pearls of highest price.
Thus good Valmiki, sage divine,
Rehearsed the tale of Raghu's line,
As Narad, heavenly saint, before
Had traced the story's outline o'er.
He sang of Rama's princely birth,
His kindness and heroic worth;
His love for all, his patient youth,
His gentleness and constant truth,
And many a tale and legend old
By holy Visvamitra told.
How Janak's child he wooed and won,
And broke the bow that bent to none.
How he with every virtue fraught
His namesake Rama(54) met and fought.
The choice of Rama for the throne;
The malice by Kaikeyi shown,
Whose evil counsel marred the plan
And drove him forth a banisht man.
How the king grieved and groaned, and cried,
And swooned away and