Chapter V: On Resignation
I was burning the oil of reflection one night,And Rhetoric's lamp I had kindled up bright.To my sayings a frivolous talker gave ear ;Save expressing approval, no way he saw clear.From a word, too, detracting, he could not refrain,For groaning unconsciously rises from pain :"His thoughts are mature and his judgment is nice,On the topics of piety, mystics, advice ;Not on spears, iron maces, and truncheons of weight,For these are fit subjects for others to state."He knows not that I have no liking for fight,Else to speak on these matters my pow'r is not slight.The sword of the tongue I can draw from its case,And a world of grandiloquence quickly efface.Come, let us this topic of war undertake !For the head of the foe a stone-pillow I'll make.
Words in this poem
- grandiloquence n.
- The use of lofty words or phrases; bombast; -- usually in a bad sense.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter V: On Resignation 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 V: On Resignation, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/5-1.html, id L29652.
Form and metre
Chapter V: On Resignation is 16 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 AABBCCDDEEAAFFGG nightA · brightA · earB · clearB · refrainC · painC · niceD · adviceD · weightE · stateE · fightA · slightA · caseF · effaceF · undertakeG · makeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I was burning the oil of reflection one night, | 12 | ··/˘···˘/˘·· |
| And Rhetoric's lamp I had kindled up bright. | 12 | ·/˘˘···/˘˘·· |
| To my sayings a frivolous talker gave ear ; | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Save expressing approval, no way he saw clear. | 12 | ·˘/˘˘/˘····· |
| From a word, too, detracting, he could not refrain, | 12 | ····˘/˘···˘/ |
| For groaning unconsciously rises from pain : | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| "His thoughts are mature and his judgment is nice, | 11 | ···˘/··/˘·· |
| On the topics of piety, mystics, advice ; | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| Not on spears, iron maces, and truncheons of weight, | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| For these are fit subjects for others to state." | 11 | ····˘/·/˘·· |
| He knows not that I have no liking for fight, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Else to speak on these matters my pow'r is not slight. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| The sword of the tongue I can draw from its case, | 11 | ··········· |
| And a world of grandiloquence quickly efface. | 12 | ····˘/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| Come, let us this topic of war undertake ! | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| For the head of the foe a stone-pillow I'll make. | 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.