Chapter III: Story of the Patient and the Doctor
A doctor, sweet-faced, had in Merv his abode;Within the heart's garden, he cypress-like showed.For the grief of hearts wounded by him, not a care;Of the hopes of those ailing through him, unaware.A sufferer tells a good tale of his case:—"With the doctor my head was much pleased, for a space ;To recover my health I had little desire,For the Doctor would, then, from attending, retire."Many pow'rful in wisdom and valiant in hand,By the passion of love are brought under command.When Passion gives Wisdom a box on the ear,Understanding can never again its head rear.
Words in this poem
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- unaware a.
- Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive.
- sufferer n.
- One who suffers; one who endures or undergoes suffering; one who sustains inconvenience or loss; as, sufferers by poverty or sickness; men are sufferers by fire or by losses at sea.
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter III: Story of the Patient and the Doctor 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 III: Story of the Patient and the Doctor, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/3-13.html, id L29605.
Form and metre
Chapter III: Story of the Patient and the Doctor is 12 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 AABBCCDDEEFF abodeA · showedA · careB · unawareB · caseC · spaceC · desireD · retireD · handE · commandE · earF · rearF
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 doctor, sweet-faced, had in Merv his abode; | 12 | ·/˘··˘····˘/ |
| Within the heart's garden, he cypress-like showed. | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··˘ |
| For the grief of hearts wounded by him, not a care; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Of the hopes of those ailing through him, unaware. | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| A sufferer tells a good tale of his case:— | 11 | ·/˘˘······· |
| "With the doctor my head was much pleased, for a space ; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| To recover my health I had little desire, | 13 | ·˘/˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| For the Doctor would, then, from attending, retire." | 12 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘/ |
| Many pow'rful in wisdom and valiant in hand, | 12 | /˘···/˘·/˘·· |
| By the passion of love are brought under command. | 12 | ··/˘······˘/ |
| When Passion gives Wisdom a box on the ear, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Understanding can never again its head rear. | 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.