Chapter VII: Story of the Scholar and the Minstrel's Harp
I have heard that, in comp'ny with tipsy young folk,A scholar a minstrel's small drum and harp broke.Like a harp, he was dragged by the hair through the placeBy the slaves, and was tambour-like thumped on the face.He was sleepless all night, from the pain of the blows ;His tutor rebuked him next day when he rose :"If you wish not to be, tambourine-like, face sore,Oh brother ; hold, harp-like, your face down before !"
Words in this poem
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- tambour n.
- A kind of small flat drum; a tambourine.
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VII: Story of the Scholar and the Minstrel's Harp 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 VII: Story of the Scholar and the Minstrel's Harp, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/7-7.html, id L29690.
Form and metre
Chapter VII: Story of the Scholar and the Minstrel's Harp is 8 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 AABBCCDD folkA · brokeA · placeB · faceB · blowsC · roseC · soreD · beforeD
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 have heard that, in comp'ny with tipsy young folk, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| A scholar a minstrel's small drum and harp broke. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Like a harp, he was dragged by the hair through the place | 12 | ············ |
| By the slaves, and was tambour-like thumped on the face. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| He was sleepless all night, from the pain of the blows ; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| His tutor rebuked him next day when he rose : | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘······ |
| "If you wish not to be, tambourine-like, face sore, | 12 | ·······˘/··· |
| Oh brother ; hold, harp-like, your face down before !" | 11 | ·/˘········ |
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.