Chapter IV: Story on Magnanimity
A dog bit the foot of a desert recluse.With such fury, that blood from its fangs dropped profuse.The helpless one slept not at night, being pained;In his household a daughter unmarried remained.She was harsh to her father and showed temper hot ;Saying, " You, too, at least, have got teeth, have you not?"After weeping, the man of unfortunate day,Said, smiling, "Oh mistress with heart-lighting ray!Although I was also superior in pow'r,I restrained my desire and my teeth at that hour.Did a sword cleave my head, yet, I never could thinkThat my teeth in the foot of a dog I should sink.Towards no-bodies, exercise meanness you can ;But a dog never yet has come out of a man."
About this text
Chapter IV: Story on Magnanimity 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 IV: Story on Magnanimity, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/4-11.html, id L29632.
Form and metre
Chapter IV: Story on Magnanimity 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 89%).
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 recluseA · profuseA · painedB · remainedB · hotC · notC · dayD · rayD · pow'rE · hourE · thinkF · sinkF · canG · manG
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 dog bit the foot of a desert recluse. | 11 | ·······˘/˘/ |
| With such fury, that blood from its fangs dropped profuse. | 12 | ··/˘······˘/ |
| The helpless one slept not at night, being pained; | 12 | ·/˘·····/˘·˘ |
| In his household a daughter unmarried remained. | 12 | ··/··/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| She was harsh to her father and showed temper hot ; | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| Saying, " You, too, at least, have got teeth, have you not?" | 12 | /˘·········· |
| After weeping, the man of unfortunate day, | 12 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘· |
| Said, smiling, "Oh mistress with heart-lighting ray! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Although I was also superior in pow'r, | 12 | ····/˘˘/˘˘·· |
| I restrained my desire and my teeth at that hour. | 13 | ·˘/·˘/·····/˘ |
| Did a sword cleave my head, yet, I never could think | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| That my teeth in the foot of a dog I should sink. | 12 | ············ |
| Towards no-bodies, exercise meanness you can ; | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| But a dog never yet has come out of a man." | 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.