Man is in loss except he lives aright,
And helps his fellow to be firm and
brave,
Faithful and patient.
-
Sir Edwin Arnold[1]
[1] Sir Edwin Arnold, British poet and
journalist, was born in 1832. He was educated at the King’s school, Rochester;
King’s College, London; and University College,
Oxford, where in 1852 he gained the Newdigate prize. On leaving Oxford he
became a schoolmaster, and went to India as principal of the government
Sanskrit College at Poona. Returning to England in 1861 he became a journalist
on the staff of the Daily Telegraph, with which would be associated for
more than forty years. On behalf of the paper, and in conjunction with the New
York Herald, he arranged for the journey of H. M. Stanley to Africa to
discover the source of the Congo; Stanley named a mountain after him.
It was as poet that Sir Edwin was best known to his contemporaries. The
Light of Asia appeared in 1879 and won an immediate success. His other
principal volumes of poetry were Indian Song of Songs (1875), Pearls
of the Faith (1883), The Song Celestial (1885), With Sadi in the
Garden (1888), The Light of the World (1891), Potiphar’s Wife
(1892) and Adzuma (1893). In his later years he resided for some time in
Japan, and his third wife was a Japanese lady. In Seas and Lands (1891)
and Japonica (1892) he gives an interesting study of Japanese life. He
was created K.C.I.E. in 1888. Sir Edwin died in 1904. (Source: Encyclopedia
Brittanica, 1911)
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