Chapter II: Story of the Boy and the Sheep
On the road, there came running my way a young man ;Behind him a sheep with alacrity ran."Have you hold of a rope or a tether?" I said,By which the poor creature is after you led?"The collar and chain he removed from it, deft,And then scampered about, from the right to the left.Immediately after him hurried the pet,As if barley and grass from his fingers it ate.On returning from sporting and playing, again,He looked at me, saying, " Oh wise among men!This tether, it is not that brings it with me,But the noose on its neck is 'kind treatment,' you see."The elephant wanton, from kindness enjoyed,Attacks not the man, as his keeper employed.To the bad be indulgent, oh thou who art good !For the dog will keep watch when he eats of your food.To the man the Pard's teeth become blunt by degrees,Who rubs on its tongue, for a day or two, cheese.
Words in this poem
- tether n.
- A long rope or chain by which an animal is fastened, as to a stake, so that it can range or feed only within certain limits. [Formerly tedder, OE. tedir; akin to LG. tider, tier, Icel. tjo, Dan. töir. *64.]
- deft a.
- Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [OE. daft, deft, becoming, mild, gentle, stupid (cf. OE. daffe, deffe, fool, coward), AS. dæft (in derivatives only) mild, gentle, fitting, seasonable; akin to d]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter II: Story of the Boy and the Sheep 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 II: Story of the Boy and the Sheep, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/2-18.html, id L29575.
Form and metre
Chapter II: Story of the Boy and the Sheep is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII manA · ranA · saidB · ledB · deftC · leftC · petD · ateD · againE · menE · meF · seeF · enjoyedG · employedG · goodH · foodH · degreesI · cheeseI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the road, there came running my way a young man ; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Behind him a sheep with alacrity ran. | 11 | ······˘/˘˘· |
| "Have you hold of a rope or a tether?" I said, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| By which the poor creature is after you led?" | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| The collar and chain he removed from it, deft, | 12 | ·/˘···˘/˘··· |
| And then scampered about, from the right to the left. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Immediately after him hurried the pet, | 12 | ˘/˘˘˘···/˘·· |
| As if barley and grass from his fingers it ate. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| On returning from sporting and playing, again, | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| He looked at me, saying, " Oh wise among men! | 12 | ··˘··/˘····· |
| This tether, it is not that brings it with me, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| But the noose on its neck is 'kind treatment,' you see." | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| The elephant wanton, from kindness enjoyed, | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Attacks not the man, as his keeper employed. | 12 | ˘/·····/˘˘/˘ |
| To the bad be indulgent, oh thou who art good ! | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| For the dog will keep watch when he eats of your food. | 12 | ············ |
| To the man the Pard's teeth become blunt by degrees, | 12 | ······˘/··˘/ |
| Who rubs on its tongue, for a day or two, cheese. | 11 | ··········· |
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.