Curse of Kehama
Encyclopedia
The Curse of Kehama is an 1810 epic poem composed by Robert Southey
. The origins of the poem can be traced to Southey's school boy days when he would suffer insomnia along with his memories of a dark and mysterious schoolmate that later formed the basis for one of the poem's villains. The poem was started in 1802 following the publication of Southey's epic Thalaba the Destroyer
. After giving up on the poem for a few years, he returned to it after the prompting by the poet Walter Savage Landor
encouraged him to complete his work. When it was finally published, it sold more copies than his previous works.
The poem is divided into twelve "books", with its first half describing how the evil priest Kehama is able to gain significant amounts of demonic power in a quest to become a god. This is interrupted when his son Arvalan, is killed after attempting to have his way with Kailyal, a peasant girl. After the death of his son, Kehama begins to wage war upon Yamen
, the god of death, and curses Ladurlad, his son's killer. However, the curse allows Ladurlad the ability to become a hero of significant strength, and he uses that power in order to work with the Hindu gods in a quest to defeat Kehama and insure the safety of Kailyal. Eventually, Ladurlad is able to defeat Kehama and is freed from his curse.
Although the poem describes Hindu myth, it is heavily influenced by Zoroastrian theology and the ideal of a dualistic moral system. Part of Southey's focus on India stems from the recent British colonial expansion into India and rising interest by British citizens for Indian culture. Critics gave the works mixed reviews, with many reviewers praising the quality of the poem's language, but others felt that the plot or choice of subject matter was lacking.
as a boy. It is possible that Southey, during this time, had problems sleeping and that an inability to sleep served as inspiration for the topic of Kehama. Additionally, a boy that Southey met while at school, who looked like a fiend according to Southey's account, served as a prototype for the dark and mysterious character Arvalan. By 1802, Southey spent his time writing the poem along with other projects following the publication of Thalaba the Destroyer. This continued into 1806, when the epic was worked on alongside other works, such as a translation of El Cid and a history of Portugal.
It was not until 1808 that Southey attempted to finish Kehma, which came after him almost abandoning poetry because of the reception of Thalaba and Madoc. In particular, fellow poet Landor encouraged Southey to complete the epic along with writing the work Roderick the Last of the Goths
. This effort continued through 1808, and he was able to complete 3,000 lines of the poem. However, he was interrupted in his work at the end of the year by an illness that plagued his family and kept him away from writing for two months. In March 1809, Walter Scott
requested Southey to send him some excerpts from the work. Southey complied and the lines were sent for Scott's collection, English Minstrelsy
. The poem was finished by 1810 and, by 1811, Kehama was selling more copies than Thalaba sold.
. The story describes Kehama, a Brahmin priest, as he makes sacrifices to Shiva
in order to gain power. His scheme is to conquer death and attain Amreeta
in order to become a god himself. Arvalan, Kehama's son, attempts to take Kailyal, a peasant girl. He is stopped by Ladurlad, another peasant, and killed. Kehama decides to war against Yamen, the god of death while also seeking to torture Ladurlad in revenge. Ladurlad is cursed to be separated from nature and unable to live a human life, which included not being able to sleep. However, his separation from nature gives him the ability to do what others cannot.
After this event, Arvalan turns into a demon. Kailyal, while trying to escape from Kehama's wrath, is pushed into a river and was about to drown before Ladurlad comes and saves her. Although he is a hero, Ladurlad cannot bear to be near her, which allows for Arvalan to pursue after Kailyal as she escapes to the temple of Pollear. When she gets there, she is almost poisoned by a poisonous manchineel tree
. Before this happens, a gandharva
s, or good spirit, named Ereenia takes Kailyal to Casyapa, Father of the Hindu gods. With the help of the Tree of Life at Casyapa's mountain, she is able to be healed. However, Kailyal is sent back because Casyapa is worried about Kehama's power. Kailyal is sent to the land of Indra
for safety. While there, she is united with her father and Ladurlad, and they are told of how Vishnu
saved humanity by assuming a human form. During this time, Kailyal grows close to Ereenia and they fall in love with each other.
Arvalan turns to Lorrinite, a witch, who is able to find out the location of Ladurlad and Kailyal. After being armed with the witches magic weapons, Arvalan travels to Kailyal's location. He is prevented from reaching the place. However, Kehama completes a ritual at the same time that grants him power and the ability to invade the Hindu first heaven, and Ladurlad and Kailyal flee. They start a new life until a group of individuals kidnap Kailyal in order to marry her off to the god Juggernaut
. During a ritual involving the sacrifice of worshippers, Arvalan possesses various priests that attempt have their way with Kailyal. Ereenia attempts to save her, but he is stopped by Lorrinite and is taken away. Left with no options, Kailyal attempts suicide by burning herself in a fire. She is rescued by Ladurlad who, because of the curse, is immune to fire.
Ladurlad and Kailyal travel in search of Ereenia and end up in the underwater city of Mahabalipur. Ladurlad goes down into the city and enters into the palace of Baly, the ruler of the city who was a demon that attempted to do the same thing that Kehama is trying to do: overthrow the gods. Ladurlad comes to the Chamber of the Kings of old where he finds Ereenia. After battling against a naga
, he is able to rescue Ereenia. By the time they return to Kailyal, they are attacked by Arvalan's servants. Baly appears, as he is allowed to do so once a year, and uses his powers to condemn Arvalan's army to damnation. Kehama, wanting Kailyal for himself, tries to bargain with her and offer to remove Ladurlad's curse. After refusing, Kailyal is given leprosy.
Ereenia sets out to wake up Shiva at Mount Calasay. When he gets there, he rings the Silver Bell and the mountain turns into light followed by a message telling Ereenia to talk to Yamen. Ereenia returns to Kailyal and Ladurlad, and the three travel to the world of the dead, Padalon. They are brought to the city Yamenpur and are able to meet Yamen. After talking to Yamen, they are told to wait, but Kehama attacks Padalon. Kehama defeats Yamen and tries to convince Kailyal to join him. After being rejected again, Kehama attains the Amreeta and becomes immortal. However, the Amreeta gives Kehama an immortality of torment, which reflects Kehama's soul. Shiva comes down and restores Yamen to power. Shiva allows Kailyal to drink the Amreeta, which allows her to become a divine being that can be with Ereenia. Ladurlad is given the ability to die and the poem ends with him entering the paradise Yedillian to be with the other dead.
The poem's focus on Hinduism became an important topic to Southey because of the British colonial interest in India. He was advised by William Taylor that focusing on India would allow for the work to become popular as the Empire became greater. The poem also marks the shift in view of the "exotic" from China to India and the appeal the religion started to hold. This transition was furthered by the translations of William Jones
of Sanskrit along with possible connections between Hinduism and other theological traditions including Christianity. Southey knew of various translations and read Shakuntala
(from the Mahabharata
) and the Bhagavad Gita
, which helped to form a basis for his knowledge of India. However, Southey's rationalism kept him from accepting many of the beliefs he considered superstitious. Instead, he wished to hide what he thought were deformities in order to promote his own view.
This was followed by an anonymous review in the March 1811 The Critical Review
that argued: "The Curse of Kehama is a performance of precisely this violent and imposing description. Like the shield of Atlante, it strikes dead everything that is opposed to it; one might as well hold a farthering candle to the sun, as to think of placing Homer, or Shakspeare, or Milton or Dante, by the side of it. But it is the false blaze of enchantment, not the steady radiance of truth and nature; and if you gain courage to look at it a second or third time, the magic has lost its power, and you only wonder what it was that dazzled you." The review continued, "we think there is quite enough to discover to us how great a poet Mr. Southey might be, were the single gift of judgment to be added to the qualities which he undoubtedly possesses. Till then, we fear that we shall never be able to subscribe to the belief in a Trinity of living poets, of whom Mr. S. is represented as entitled to the foremost honours."
John Foster
wrote a review for the April 1811 Eclectic Review which said, "We must repeat then, in the first place, our censure of the adoption or creation of so absurd a fable" and "The next chief point of censure would be, that this absurdity is also paganism; but this has been noticed so pointedly and repeatedly in our analysis, that a very few words here will suffice." In an analysis of other aspects, Foster argued, "The general diction of the work is admirably strong, and various, and free; and, in going through it, we have repeatedly exulted in the capabilities of the English language. The author seems to have in a great measure grown out of that affected simplicity of expression, of which he has generally been accused. The versification, as to measure and rhyme, is a complete defiance of all rule, and all example [...] This is objectionable, chiefly, as it allows the poet to riot away in a wild wantonness of amplification". An anonymous review in the June 1811 Literary Panorama stated, "If we were desired to name a poet whose command of language enables him to express in the most suitable and energetic terms the images which agitate his mind, we should name Mr. Southey; if we were requested to point out a poem which to freedom of manner in the construction of its stanzas, united a condensation of phrase, with a happy collocation of words, thereby producing force, we should recommend Kehama".
Ernest Bernhardt-Kabish, in 1977, claimed that "The Curse of Kehama is a striking poem" and that the poem was "better constructed than the preceding ones". However, he argued that the poem's ending was "too crass in its situation and too facile in its resolution to succeed fully even as a moral allegory."
Sir Granville Bantock, who made a symphonic poem
out of Southey's Thalaba
planned to do a symphonic poem based on Curse of Kehama, from which he only finished two orchestral scenes.
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
. The origins of the poem can be traced to Southey's school boy days when he would suffer insomnia along with his memories of a dark and mysterious schoolmate that later formed the basis for one of the poem's villains. The poem was started in 1802 following the publication of Southey's epic Thalaba the Destroyer
Thalaba the Destroyer
Thalaba the Destroyer is an 1801 epic poem composed by Robert Southey. The origins of the poem can be traced to Southey's school boy days, but he did not begin to write the poem until he finished composing Madoc at the age of 25. Thalaba the Destroyer was completed while Southey travelled in...
. After giving up on the poem for a few years, he returned to it after the prompting by the poet Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor was an English writer and poet. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem Rose Aylmer, but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity...
encouraged him to complete his work. When it was finally published, it sold more copies than his previous works.
The poem is divided into twelve "books", with its first half describing how the evil priest Kehama is able to gain significant amounts of demonic power in a quest to become a god. This is interrupted when his son Arvalan, is killed after attempting to have his way with Kailyal, a peasant girl. After the death of his son, Kehama begins to wage war upon Yamen
Yama (Hinduism)
Yama is the lord of death in Hinduism, first recorded in the Vedas. Yama belongs to an early stratum of Indo-Iranian theology. In Vedic tradition Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, thus in virtue of precedence he became the ruler...
, the god of death, and curses Ladurlad, his son's killer. However, the curse allows Ladurlad the ability to become a hero of significant strength, and he uses that power in order to work with the Hindu gods in a quest to defeat Kehama and insure the safety of Kailyal. Eventually, Ladurlad is able to defeat Kehama and is freed from his curse.
Although the poem describes Hindu myth, it is heavily influenced by Zoroastrian theology and the ideal of a dualistic moral system. Part of Southey's focus on India stems from the recent British colonial expansion into India and rising interest by British citizens for Indian culture. Critics gave the works mixed reviews, with many reviewers praising the quality of the poem's language, but others felt that the plot or choice of subject matter was lacking.
Background
The basis for Southey wishing to write an epic poem came from his private reading of literature while attending Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
as a boy. It is possible that Southey, during this time, had problems sleeping and that an inability to sleep served as inspiration for the topic of Kehama. Additionally, a boy that Southey met while at school, who looked like a fiend according to Southey's account, served as a prototype for the dark and mysterious character Arvalan. By 1802, Southey spent his time writing the poem along with other projects following the publication of Thalaba the Destroyer. This continued into 1806, when the epic was worked on alongside other works, such as a translation of El Cid and a history of Portugal.
It was not until 1808 that Southey attempted to finish Kehma, which came after him almost abandoning poetry because of the reception of Thalaba and Madoc. In particular, fellow poet Landor encouraged Southey to complete the epic along with writing the work Roderick the Last of the Goths
Roderick the Last of the Goths
Roderick the Last of the Goths is an 1814 epic poem composed by Robert Southey. The origins of the poem come from Southey wanting to write a poem discussing Spain and the story of Rodrigo. The poem was originally titled as "Pelayo, the Restorer of Spain" but was later retitled to reflect the change...
. This effort continued through 1808, and he was able to complete 3,000 lines of the poem. However, he was interrupted in his work at the end of the year by an illness that plagued his family and kept him away from writing for two months. In March 1809, Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
requested Southey to send him some excerpts from the work. Southey complied and the lines were sent for Scott's collection, English Minstrelsy
The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is a collection of Border ballads compiled by Walter Scott. It is not to be confused with his long poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel...
. The poem was finished by 1810 and, by 1811, Kehama was selling more copies than Thalaba sold.
Poem
The poem is twelve books with the first six dealing with various episodes along with introducing Hindu theologyHinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
. The story describes Kehama, a Brahmin priest, as he makes sacrifices to Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
in order to gain power. His scheme is to conquer death and attain Amreeta
Amrita
Amrit is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda where it is one of several synonyms of soma, the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek...
in order to become a god himself. Arvalan, Kehama's son, attempts to take Kailyal, a peasant girl. He is stopped by Ladurlad, another peasant, and killed. Kehama decides to war against Yamen, the god of death while also seeking to torture Ladurlad in revenge. Ladurlad is cursed to be separated from nature and unable to live a human life, which included not being able to sleep. However, his separation from nature gives him the ability to do what others cannot.
After this event, Arvalan turns into a demon. Kailyal, while trying to escape from Kehama's wrath, is pushed into a river and was about to drown before Ladurlad comes and saves her. Although he is a hero, Ladurlad cannot bear to be near her, which allows for Arvalan to pursue after Kailyal as she escapes to the temple of Pollear. When she gets there, she is almost poisoned by a poisonous manchineel tree
Manchineel tree
The Manchineel tree, Hippomane mancinella, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family , native to Florida in the United States, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America...
. Before this happens, a gandharva
Gandharva
Gandharva is a name used for distinct mythological beings in Hinduism and Buddhism; it is also a term for skilled singers in Indian classical music.-In Hinduism:...
s, or good spirit, named Ereenia takes Kailyal to Casyapa, Father of the Hindu gods. With the help of the Tree of Life at Casyapa's mountain, she is able to be healed. However, Kailyal is sent back because Casyapa is worried about Kehama's power. Kailyal is sent to the land of Indra
Indra
' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
for safety. While there, she is united with her father and Ladurlad, and they are told of how Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
saved humanity by assuming a human form. During this time, Kailyal grows close to Ereenia and they fall in love with each other.
Arvalan turns to Lorrinite, a witch, who is able to find out the location of Ladurlad and Kailyal. After being armed with the witches magic weapons, Arvalan travels to Kailyal's location. He is prevented from reaching the place. However, Kehama completes a ritual at the same time that grants him power and the ability to invade the Hindu first heaven, and Ladurlad and Kailyal flee. They start a new life until a group of individuals kidnap Kailyal in order to marry her off to the god Juggernaut
Jagannath
Jagannath is a transcendental non-anthropotheistic Hindu god worshiped primarily by the people of Indian state of Orissa, and, to a great extent, West Bengal...
. During a ritual involving the sacrifice of worshippers, Arvalan possesses various priests that attempt have their way with Kailyal. Ereenia attempts to save her, but he is stopped by Lorrinite and is taken away. Left with no options, Kailyal attempts suicide by burning herself in a fire. She is rescued by Ladurlad who, because of the curse, is immune to fire.
Ladurlad and Kailyal travel in search of Ereenia and end up in the underwater city of Mahabalipur. Ladurlad goes down into the city and enters into the palace of Baly, the ruler of the city who was a demon that attempted to do the same thing that Kehama is trying to do: overthrow the gods. Ladurlad comes to the Chamber of the Kings of old where he finds Ereenia. After battling against a naga
Naga
Naga or NAGA may refer to:* Nāga, a group of serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.-People:* Nayan / Nayar/Nair people of Kerala Society* Naga people, a diverse ethnic identity in Northeast India...
, he is able to rescue Ereenia. By the time they return to Kailyal, they are attacked by Arvalan's servants. Baly appears, as he is allowed to do so once a year, and uses his powers to condemn Arvalan's army to damnation. Kehama, wanting Kailyal for himself, tries to bargain with her and offer to remove Ladurlad's curse. After refusing, Kailyal is given leprosy.
Ereenia sets out to wake up Shiva at Mount Calasay. When he gets there, he rings the Silver Bell and the mountain turns into light followed by a message telling Ereenia to talk to Yamen. Ereenia returns to Kailyal and Ladurlad, and the three travel to the world of the dead, Padalon. They are brought to the city Yamenpur and are able to meet Yamen. After talking to Yamen, they are told to wait, but Kehama attacks Padalon. Kehama defeats Yamen and tries to convince Kailyal to join him. After being rejected again, Kehama attains the Amreeta and becomes immortal. However, the Amreeta gives Kehama an immortality of torment, which reflects Kehama's soul. Shiva comes down and restores Yamen to power. Shiva allows Kailyal to drink the Amreeta, which allows her to become a divine being that can be with Ereenia. Ladurlad is given the ability to die and the poem ends with him entering the paradise Yedillian to be with the other dead.
Themes
Southey was intrigued by the Zend Avesta and in Zoroastrianism. In particular, the aspects of a dualistic moral system along with a focus on death appealed to the poet. He wanted to create a poem based in the ideas and dealing with a Persian prince, but he was unable to write the poem. Instead, he incorporated aspects of it, including how evil allows for the shaping of good, to enter into Kehama. Other theological aspects involved the Hindu pantheon in order to have an epic with gods that both behind the scenes and directly within the story of the epic. The evil discussed in the poem had a contemporary and political model. It paralleled Southey's belief that Napoleon was becoming an Antichrist figure that would set up a reverse millennium.The poem's focus on Hinduism became an important topic to Southey because of the British colonial interest in India. He was advised by William Taylor that focusing on India would allow for the work to become popular as the Empire became greater. The poem also marks the shift in view of the "exotic" from China to India and the appeal the religion started to hold. This transition was furthered by the translations of William Jones
William Jones (philologist)
Sir William Jones was an English philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages...
of Sanskrit along with possible connections between Hinduism and other theological traditions including Christianity. Southey knew of various translations and read Shakuntala
Shakuntala
In Hindu mythology Shakuntala is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the Mahabharata and dramatized by Kalidasa in his play Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Etymology:Rishi Kanva found her in forest as a baby surrounded by Shakunta birds...
(from the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
) and the Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, which helped to form a basis for his knowledge of India. However, Southey's rationalism kept him from accepting many of the beliefs he considered superstitious. Instead, he wished to hide what he thought were deformities in order to promote his own view.
Critical reception
In a poem on Southey, Landor praised his friend, "In Thalaba, Kehama and Roderick the most inventive Poet/ In lighter compositions the most diversified." An anonymous review in the February 1811 Monthly Mirror claimed "The plot is [...] powerfully spirit-stirring, but not interesting [...] because it is utterly impossible for the feelings to travel with the persons of a drama so constituted as the present [...] It seems Mr. Southey labours under a great disadvantage, through the choice of his machinery." It continued, "Having given this opinion, we are now free to confess that the poet's art is, in the terrific, prodigiously displayed throughout, and we have no doubt that if Mr. Southey's love of eccentricity had not overcome his better taste, he would have chosen such a machinery, and so condicted his story, as not only to have agitated the nerves, but to have come home to heart, and rested there. Being what it is, however, we pronounce it a splendid specimen of a daring poetical imagination, fed and supported by vast sources of knowledge and observation."This was followed by an anonymous review in the March 1811 The Critical Review
The Critical Review
The Critical Review was first edited by Tobias Smollett from 1756 to 1763, and was contributed to by Samuel Johnson, David Hume, John Hunter, and Oliver Goldsmith, until 1817....
that argued: "The Curse of Kehama is a performance of precisely this violent and imposing description. Like the shield of Atlante, it strikes dead everything that is opposed to it; one might as well hold a farthering candle to the sun, as to think of placing Homer, or Shakspeare, or Milton or Dante, by the side of it. But it is the false blaze of enchantment, not the steady radiance of truth and nature; and if you gain courage to look at it a second or third time, the magic has lost its power, and you only wonder what it was that dazzled you." The review continued, "we think there is quite enough to discover to us how great a poet Mr. Southey might be, were the single gift of judgment to be added to the qualities which he undoubtedly possesses. Till then, we fear that we shall never be able to subscribe to the belief in a Trinity of living poets, of whom Mr. S. is represented as entitled to the foremost honours."
John Foster
John Foster (essayist)
John Foster was an English essayist, son of a weaver, born in the parish of Halifax, Yorkshire, and educated for the ministry at the Baptist college in Bristol. After serving as a minister for several years, he chose to devote himself to literature. He contributed nearly 200 articles to the...
wrote a review for the April 1811 Eclectic Review which said, "We must repeat then, in the first place, our censure of the adoption or creation of so absurd a fable" and "The next chief point of censure would be, that this absurdity is also paganism; but this has been noticed so pointedly and repeatedly in our analysis, that a very few words here will suffice." In an analysis of other aspects, Foster argued, "The general diction of the work is admirably strong, and various, and free; and, in going through it, we have repeatedly exulted in the capabilities of the English language. The author seems to have in a great measure grown out of that affected simplicity of expression, of which he has generally been accused. The versification, as to measure and rhyme, is a complete defiance of all rule, and all example [...] This is objectionable, chiefly, as it allows the poet to riot away in a wild wantonness of amplification". An anonymous review in the June 1811 Literary Panorama stated, "If we were desired to name a poet whose command of language enables him to express in the most suitable and energetic terms the images which agitate his mind, we should name Mr. Southey; if we were requested to point out a poem which to freedom of manner in the construction of its stanzas, united a condensation of phrase, with a happy collocation of words, thereby producing force, we should recommend Kehama".
Ernest Bernhardt-Kabish, in 1977, claimed that "The Curse of Kehama is a striking poem" and that the poem was "better constructed than the preceding ones". However, he argued that the poem's ending was "too crass in its situation and too facile in its resolution to succeed fully even as a moral allegory."
Sir Granville Bantock, who made a symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
out of Southey's Thalaba
Thalaba the Destroyer
Thalaba the Destroyer is an 1801 epic poem composed by Robert Southey. The origins of the poem can be traced to Southey's school boy days, but he did not begin to write the poem until he finished composing Madoc at the age of 25. Thalaba the Destroyer was completed while Southey travelled in...
planned to do a symphonic poem based on Curse of Kehama, from which he only finished two orchestral scenes.
External links
- The curse (sic) of Kehama in Google books
- The Curse of Kehama at the Norton College's Norton Anthology of English literature
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution. VIII. Southey. § 10. The Curse of Kehama., Bartleby.com