Chapter III: On the Frailty of Creatures and the Grandeur of God
The pathway to wisdom is twist upon twist ;For the holy, the Maker alone can exist.You can tell this to people who truths recognize ;But people of theory will criticize;Saying, "What is the sky and the earth, do you say?Who are men? what are game and the wild beasts of prey?"Oh intelligent man ! Your inquiry is well;If the answer is pleasing to you, I will tell.The desert and ocean, the hills and the sky;The fairies, mankind, fiends, and angels on high ;All things that exist, for this reason are less,That only through Him they existence possess.The sea in a storm is sublime in your eye;And lofty's the vault.of the rotating sky.But when will mere surface observers obtainA glimpse of where spiritual persons remain ?For if it's the sun, not a speck they descry;If the whole seven seas, not a drop can they spy.When the Sultan of Glory His flag has unfurl'd,Into Nullity's collar collapses the world!
Words in this poem
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- descry
- , Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter III: On the Frailty of Creatures and the Grandeur of God 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: On the Frailty of Creatures and the Grandeur of God, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/3-20.html, id L29612.
Form and metre
Chapter III: On the Frailty of Creatures and the Grandeur of God is 20 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 AABBCCDDEEFFEEGGEEHH twistA · existA · recognizeB · criticizeB · sayC · preyC · wellD · tellD · skyE · highE · lessF · possessF · eyeE · skyE · obtainG · remainG · descryE · spyE · unfurl'dH · worldH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The pathway to wisdom is twist upon twist ; | 11 | ·/··/˘····· |
| For the holy, the Maker alone can exist. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/·˘/ |
| You can tell this to people who truths recognize ; | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| But people of theory will criticize; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Saying, "What is the sky and the earth, do you say? | 12 | /˘·········· |
| Who are men? what are game and the wild beasts of prey?" | 12 | ············ |
| Oh intelligent man ! Your inquiry is well; | 12 | ·˘/˘˘··˘/˘·· |
| If the answer is pleasing to you, I will tell. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| The desert and ocean, the hills and the sky; | 11 | ·˘/·/˘····· |
| The fairies, mankind, fiends, and angels on high ; | 11 | ·/˘//··/˘·· |
| All things that exist, for this reason are less, | 11 | ···˘/··/˘·· |
| That only through Him they existence possess. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘/ |
| The sea in a storm is sublime in your eye; | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| And lofty's the vault.of the rotating sky. | 11 | ·/˘····/·˘· |
| But when will mere surface observers obtain | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| A glimpse of where spiritual persons remain ? | 12 | ····/˘˘˘/˘˘/ |
| For if it's the sun, not a speck they descry; | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| If the whole seven seas, not a drop can they spy. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| When the Sultan of Glory His flag has unfurl'd, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Into Nullity's collar collapses the world! | 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.