Chapter IV: Story of the Pearl
From a cloud there descended a droplet of rain ;'Twas ashamed when it saw the expanse of the main,Saying, "Who may I be, where the sea has its run?If the sea has existence, I, truly, have none !"Since in its own eyes the drop humble appeared,In its bosom, a shell with its life the drop reared ;The sky brought the work with success to a close,And a famed royal pearl from the rain-drop arose.Because it was humble it excellence gained;Knocked at Nullity's door till it being obtained.
Words in this poem
- droplet n.
- A little drop; a tear.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IV: Story of the Pearl 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 of the Pearl, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/4-2.html, id L29623.
Form and metre
Chapter IV: Story of the Pearl is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 AABBCCDDEE rainA · mainA · runB · noneB · appearedC · rearedC · closeD · aroseD · gainedE · obtainedE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From a cloud there descended a droplet of rain ; | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘·· |
| 'Twas ashamed when it saw the expanse of the main, | 12 | ·˘/····˘/··· |
| Saying, "Who may I be, where the sea has its run? | 12 | /˘·········· |
| If the sea has existence, I, truly, have none !" | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Since in its own eyes the drop humble appeared, | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| In its bosom, a shell with its life the drop reared ; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| The sky brought the work with success to a close, | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| And a famed royal pearl from the rain-drop arose. | 12 | ···/˘·····˘/ |
| Because it was humble it excellence gained; | 12 | ····/˘·/˘˘·˘ |
| Knocked at Nullity's door till it being obtained. | 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.