Chapter VII: An Example
Two people saw dust and confusion and strife ;Shoes ev'rywhere scattered and stones flying rife.One viewed the disturbance and broke from the way ;One joined and his head became smashed in the fray.Than the abstinent, none can more happiness share,For one's good or one's evil is not his affair!Your eyes and your ears to the head are consigned;For speech, there's the mouth, and for reason, the mind.If you, haply, the downs from the ups recognize,Do not say this is short, or that long, in your eyes !
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- abstinent a.
- Refraining from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. & Fl. [F. abstinent, L. abstinens, p. pr. of abstinere. See Abstain.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VII: An Example 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: An Example, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/7-8.html, id L29691.
Form and metre
Chapter VII: An Example 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 strifeA · rifeA · wayB · frayB · shareC · affairC · consignedD · mindD · recognizeE · eyesE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two people saw dust and confusion and strife ; | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘·· |
| Shoes ev'rywhere scattered and stones flying rife. | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| One viewed the disturbance and broke from the way ; | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| One joined and his head became smashed in the fray. | 11 | ·····˘/···· |
| Than the abstinent, none can more happiness share, | 11 | ··/˘···/˘˘· |
| For one's good or one's evil is not his affair! | 11 | ·····/···˘/ |
| Your eyes and your ears to the head are consigned; | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| For speech, there's the mouth, and for reason, the mind. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| If you, haply, the downs from the ups recognize, | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| Do not say this is short, or that long, in your eyes ! | 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.