''Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode'' is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes by

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

, first published in 1853. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'' relating how the great warrior Rustum unknowingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat. Arnold, who was unable to read the original, relied on summaries of the story in

John Malcolm Major-General Sir John Malcolm GCB, KLS (2 May 1769 – 30 May 1833) was a Scottish soldier, diplomat, East India Company administrator, statesman, and historian. Early life Sir John Malcolm was born in 1769, one of seventeen children of G ...

's ''History of Persia'' and Sainte-Beuve's review of a French prose translation of Ferdowsi. In ''Sohrab and Rustum'', Arnold attempted to imitate the "grandeur and rapidity" of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's style which he was to discuss in his lectures '' On Translating Homer'' (1861). The poem consists of 892 lines of

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

Synopsis

Rustum, the mightiest chieftain of the Persians, in the course of his wanderings, marries the daughter of the king of Ader-baijan, but leaves her in order to continue his military exploits. She bears him a son named Sohrab, but fearing that the father will take him away to be a warrior sends Rustum word that the child is a girl. Sohrab, grown to young manhood and longing to find his father, takes service with the Tartar king, Afrasiab, hoping to draw the attention of Rustum by his feats of arms. As a means of quicker fame he takes occasion of an impending battle between the Tartars and the Persians to challenge the bravest Persian champion to single fight. Rustum, who is with the Persian army, though retired like Achilles on account of the Persian king's neglect, yields to the entreaties of his fellow-chieftains and accepts the challenge, but in plain armor and without announcing his name. When Sohrab first sees his antagonist he has an intuition that it is Rustum and eagerly inquires if this is not so. But Rustum, ignorant of his motive and suspecting him of seeking some pretext not to fight, refuses to reveal his identity and dares Sohrab to come on. In their first encounter, after an exchange of spears, Sohrab cleverly evades his opponent's club, by the weight of which Rustum loses his balance and falls; but Sohrab courteously refrains from this advantage and offers truce. Rustum, however, is enraged at his downfall and renews the struggle with fury. The fight is long and close and made more dreadful by a sand-storm which envelops the combatants. At length Rustum, hard-pressed, shouts his own name with the effect that Sohrab, in bewilderment, ceases to fight and is pierced by his father's spear. Dying on the sand he declares that Rustum, his father, will avenge his death; and in the affecting scene which follows, the truth at last comes out by means of a seal pricked on Sohrab's arm by his mother. At the close of the poem the father is left mourning over his son by the banks of the

Oxus The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

; and the poet's description of the river's northward course under the stars and moonlight to the Aral Sea affords relief from the emotional tension of the story.

Legacy

The poem gave the title and place names to a notable work of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

, '' The Far-Distant Oxus'', written by Katharine Hull (1921–1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982) while they were still children themselves. They were entranced by the poem, and their characters adventure over Exmoor by pony and raft during the holidays, re-naming the places they visit from the poem. Sequels were ''Escape to Persia'', and ''Oxus in Summer'', infused with the same spirit.Carpenter and Prichard, p. 182.Carpenter and Prichard, p. 569.

References

Sources

* Kallendorf, Craig W. (2010).
A Companion to the Classical Tradition
'. John Wiley & Sons. p. 87. * Tinker, C. B. and Lowry, H. F., eds. (1950). ''The Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 488–493. Attribution: * Keller, Helen Rex (1924)

In
The Reader's Digest of Books
'. The Library of the World's Best Literature. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 798–799.

External links

*'' Sohrab and Rustum'' (from archive.org) * {{Authority control Narrative poems 19th-century poems 1850s poems Poetry by Matthew Arnold Fiction about filicide Works based on Shahnameh