Chapter III: Story on the Domination of Love over Wisdom
One adjusted his iron-like fingers for fight,Being anxious to test on a tiger his might.When the brute with his claws pulled him into his clutch,The strength of his fingers, he found, was not much.One asked him, " Why sleep like a woman? at least,With your iron-like fingers, let drive at the beast !"The poor man, I have heard, 'neath the tiger, said low:"With these fingers, one can't strike a tiger a blow."When love a philosopher's wisdom o'erthrows ;Like the iron-like fingers and tiger it shows.In the claws of a hero-like tiger retained,With your iron-like fingers, what good can be gained ?When love rises, talk not of wisdom, again !In Polo, the ball must the club's slave remain.
Words in this poem
- polo n.
- A game of ball of Eastern origin, resembling hockey, with the players on horseback. [Of Eastern origin; -- properly, the ball used in the game.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter III: Story on the Domination of Love over Wisdom 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 on the Domination of Love over Wisdom, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/3-14.html, id L29606.
Form and metre
Chapter III: Story on the Domination of Love over Wisdom 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 95%).
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 fightA · mightA · clutchB · muchB · leastC · beastC · lowD · blowD · o'erthrowsE · showsE · retainedF · gainedF · againG · remainG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One adjusted his iron-like fingers for fight, | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Being anxious to test on a tiger his might. | 12 | /˘/˘····/˘·· |
| When the brute with his claws pulled him into his clutch, | 12 | ············ |
| The strength of his fingers, he found, was not much. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| One asked him, " Why sleep like a woman? at least, | 12 | ··˘·····/˘·· |
| With your iron-like fingers, let drive at the beast !" | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| The poor man, I have heard, 'neath the tiger, said low: | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| "With these fingers, one can't strike a tiger a blow." | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| When love a philosopher's wisdom o'erthrows ; | 11 | ···˘/˘˘/˘·· |
| Like the iron-like fingers and tiger it shows. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| In the claws of a hero-like tiger retained, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| With your iron-like fingers, what good can be gained ? | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| When love rises, talk not of wisdom, again ! | 11 | ··/˘···/˘˘/ |
| In Polo, the ball must the club's slave remain. | 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.