Chapter I: On Bravery
How well spoke Gurghin to his son, on the dayThat he bound on his quiver and sword, for the fray."If you harbour a thought, like a woman, of flight,Do not go ! and defame not war's heroes of might !"The horseman who showed in the battle his back,Not himself, but brave warriors extinguished, alack!No valour, except in those two comrades, shows,Who right in the centre of battle deal blows—Two messmates, of similar language and race,To their utmost will strive, in the fight's centre place ;For the one feels ashamed from the arrows to go,While his brother is seized, in the hands of the foe.When you find that your friends are unwilling to aid,Let arrangements for flight, and not plunder, be made!
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- alack interj.
- An exclamation expressive of sorrow. [Prob. from ah! lack! OE. lak loss, failure, misfortune. See Lack.]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter I: On Bravery is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Garden of Fragrance: being a complete translation of the Bostan of Sadi from the original Persian into English verse, by G. S. Davie (London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., 1882), Internet Archive, the G. S. Davie translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Saadi, Chapter I: On Bravery, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/1-47.html, id L29552.
Form and metre
Chapter I: On Bravery is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEFFGG dayA · frayA · flightB · mightB · backC · alackC · showsD · blowsD · raceE · placeE · goF · foeF · aidG · madeG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How well spoke Gurghin to his son, on the day | 11 | ··········· |
| That he bound on his quiver and sword, for the fray. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| "If you harbour a thought, like a woman, of flight, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| Do not go ! and defame not war's heroes of might !" | 12 | ····˘/··/˘·· |
| The horseman who showed in the battle his back, | 12 | ·/˘··˘··/˘·· |
| Not himself, but brave warriors extinguished, alack! | 12 | ·˘/··/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| No valour, except in those two comrades, shows, | 11 | ·/˘·····/·· |
| Who right in the centre of battle deal blows— | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Two messmates, of similar language and race, | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘·· |
| To their utmost will strive, in the fight's centre place ; | 12 | ··/······/˘· |
| For the one feels ashamed from the arrows to go, | 12 | ····˘/··/˘·· |
| While his brother is seized, in the hands of the foe. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| When you find that your friends are unwilling to aid, | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| Let arrangements for flight, and not plunder, be made! | 12 | ·˘/˘····/˘·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.