Chapter II: Story on the Cherishing of Orphans
A shade o'er the head of the orphan boy put !Disperse all his sighs and his sorrows uproot !You know not why he has this helplessness seen?Does a tree without root ever show itself green?When you see the sad head of an orphan bent low,On the face of your son, do not kisses bestow!If an orphan should weep, who will purchase relief?And should he be vexed, who will share in his grief?Take care ! lest he weeps, for the great throne on highWill tremble and shake, should an orphan child cry !By kindness, the tears from his pure eyes displace !By compassion, disperse all the dust from his face !If his own shelt'ring shadow has gone from his head,Take him under your own fost'ring shadow, instead!I at that time the head of a monarch possessed,When I let it recline on my own father's breast ;If a fly on my body made bold to alight,The hearts of a number were grieved at the sight.If now, to a dungeon they captive me bear,Not one of my friends to assist me would care.The suff'rings of poor orphan children I know;In my childhood, my father to God had to go.
Words in this poem
- uproot v. t.
- To root up; to tear up by the roots, or as if by the roots; to remove utterly; to eradicate; to extirpate.
- dungeon n.
- A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. [OE. donjoun highest tower of a castle, tower, prison, F. donjon tower or platform in the midst of a castle, turret, or closet on the top of a house, a keep of a]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter II: Story on the Cherishing of Orphans 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 on the Cherishing of Orphans, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/2-2.html, id L29559.
Form and metre
Chapter II: Story on the Cherishing of Orphans is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK putA · uprootA · seenB · greenB · lowC · bestowC · reliefD · griefD · highE · cryE · displaceF · faceF · headG · insteadG · possessedH · breastH · alightI · sightI · bearJ · careJ · knowK · goK
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A shade o'er the head of the orphan boy put ! | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Disperse all his sighs and his sorrows uproot ! | 11 | ˘/·····/˘˘/ |
| You know not why he has this helplessness seen? | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| Does a tree without root ever show itself green? | 11 | ······/·˘/· |
| When you see the sad head of an orphan bent low, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| On the face of your son, do not kisses bestow! | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| If an orphan should weep, who will purchase relief? | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘/ |
| And should he be vexed, who will share in his grief? | 11 | ··········· |
| Take care ! lest he weeps, for the great throne on high | 11 | ··········· |
| Will tremble and shake, should an orphan child cry ! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| By kindness, the tears from his pure eyes displace ! | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| By compassion, disperse all the dust from his face ! | 12 | ·˘/˘˘/······ |
| If his own shelt'ring shadow has gone from his head, | 12 | ·····/······ |
| Take him under your own fost'ring shadow, instead! | 12 | ········/·˘/ |
| I at that time the head of a monarch possessed, | 12 | ········/·˘/ |
| When I let it recline on my own father's breast ; | 12 | ····˘/···/˘· |
| If a fly on my body made bold to alight, | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| The hearts of a number were grieved at the sight. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| If now, to a dungeon they captive me bear, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Not one of my friends to assist me would care. | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| The suff'rings of poor orphan children I know; | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| In my childhood, my father to God had to go. | 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.