Story Retelling: Song of Kaikeyi (original)
I composed the poem below in April 2005. After studying Paradise Lost a couple of years later, I decided to re-write the poem using the iambic pentameter from that epic poem. Take a look at that revised version.
Audio powered by Audacity and JW MP3 Player.
Demons with fortresses high in the sky
jealous, evil, shameless, flying about,
Angry at men without reason or cause
locked up the heavens, inflicted a drought
The air was hot, stifling and dry
The cattle were dying, as was the grain
Then men called out for help from the Gods
to join forces with them, fighting for rain
King Aja’s force was by far the largest
But men came from all over, from Sindh, from Kekaya,
from Mithila, all rallied around to the banner
and followed into battle their mighty lord Indra.
Dasaratha the first-born son of King Aja
bravest among men, resolute, without fear
He put on his armor made of bronze by the gods
and gathered his arrows, his bow, and his spear
He climbed with his weapons into his chariot
and found there a girl with the reins in her hands
She was Kaikeyi, the young princess from Kekaya,
the best chariot driver throughout all the lands
She stood strong and beautiful, ready for war
Her shimmering armor, of green silk was it made
She had stowed away with the men from her land
She was nine years old and unafraid
They took to the sky, she drove with great skill
She had mastery over those horses fiery red
Dasaratha took aim from the steady moving car
Flying through the fray, many demons they left dead
The demons with weapons could not harm these two
Not with arrow, javelin, spear, or with sword
With a falling star at last they knocked loose a wheel
And with a comet they injured that mighty lord
Kaikeyi caught him and saved him from death
She managed with one hand to keep the chariot upright
She landed them safely, she bandaged his wound
She watched him and nursed him night after night
When he fully recovered from the pain he was in,
Dasaratha asked the young princess to become his wife
He then granted her any two things she desired
Little knowing her desires would cost him his life
16 April 2005, 01:34 PM (Revised: September 2007)