stanza-forms are commonly employed in the same poem, though not in the
same canto, except that the concluding verses of a canto are not
infrequently written in a metre of more compass than the remainder.

I have called _The Cloud-Messenger_ an elegiac poem, though it would
not perhaps meet the test of a rigid definition. The Hindus class it
with _The Dynasty of Raghu_ and _The Birth of the War-god_ as a
_kavya_, but this classification simply evidences their embarrassment.
In fact, Kalidasa created in _The Cloud-Messenger_ a new _genre_. No
further explanation is needed here, as the entire poem is translated
below.

The short descriptive poem called _The Seasons_ has abundant analogues
in other literatures, and requires no comment.

It is not possible to fix the chronology of Kalidasa's writings, yet
we are not wholly in the dark. _Malavika and Agnimitra_ was certainly
his first drama, almost certainly his first work. It is a reasonable
conjecture, though nothing more, that Urvashi was written late, when
the poet's powers were waning. The introductory stanzas of _The
Dynasty of Raghu_ suggest that this epic was written before _The Birth
of the War-god_, though the inference is far from certain. Again, it
is reasonable to assume that the great works on which Kalidasa's fame
chiefly rests--_Shakuntala_, _The Cloud-Messenger_, _The Dynasty of
Raghu_, the first eight cantos of _The Birth of the War-god_--were
composed when he was in the prime of manhood. But as to the succession
of these four works we can do little but guess.

Kalidasa's glory depends primarily upon the quality of his work, yet
would be much diminished if he had failed in bulk and variety. In