Chapter IV: Story of the Holy Man and the Harper
A tipsy bard held 'neath his arm a harp tight;On a pious man's head he destroyed it at night.The gentle, good soul when the morning began,Brought a handful of coins to the hard-hearted man." Last night you were haughty and tipsy," he said,"And broke while excited your harp and my head.My wound has recovered; my terror has flown ;But you cannot get well until money you own."For this reason the friends of the Lord are more pure,That they much on their heads from the people endure.
Words in this poem
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IV: Story of the Holy Man and the Harper 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 Holy Man and the Harper, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/4-25.html, id L29646.
Form and metre
Chapter IV: Story of the Holy Man and the Harper 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 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 AABBCCDDEE tightA · nightA · beganB · manB · saidC · headC · flownD · ownD · pureE · endureE
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 tipsy bard held 'neath his arm a harp tight; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| On a pious man's head he destroyed it at night. | 11 | ··/···˘/··· |
| The gentle, good soul when the morning began, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘/ |
| Brought a handful of coins to the hard-hearted man. | 12 | ··/······/˘· |
| " Last night you were haughty and tipsy," he said, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| "And broke while excited your harp and my head. | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| My wound has recovered; my terror has flown ; | 11 | ···˘/˘·/˘·· |
| But you cannot get well until money you own." | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| For this reason the friends of the Lord are more pure, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| That they much on their heads from the people endure. | 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.