| Sohrab and Rustum | |
|---|---|
| by Matthew Arnold | |
_(14593787448)_(cropped).jpg) Sohrab and Peran-Wisa | |
| Publication date | 1853 |
| Lines | 892 |
| Metre | Blank verse |
| Full text | |
 Sohrab and Rustum at Wikisource | |
Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes by Matthew Arnold, first published in 1853. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh 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's History of Persia and Sainte-Beuve's review of a French prose translation of Ferdowsi.[1] In Sohrab and Rustum, Arnold attempted to imitate the "grandeur and rapidity" of Homer's style which he was to discuss in his lectures On Translating Homer (1861).[2] The poem consists of 892 lines of blank verse.