Chapter VIII: Story of the Two Prisoners
By the night-watch the hands of a person were bound ;All the night he showed grief and affliction profound.It arrived at his ear, in that dark, dismal night,That a man was bemoaning his famishing plight.The fettered thief heard the lamenting, and said:"How long will you blubber from grief? Go to bed!Go thank the Almighty ! oh destitute wight !"That the night-watch with thongs have not tied your hands tight."Do not weep much, although you have Poverty's plea,When a person more poor than yourself you can see !
Words in this poem
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VIII: Story of the Two Prisoners 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 VIII: Story of the Two Prisoners, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/8-9.html, id L29727.
Form and metre
Chapter VIII: Story of the Two Prisoners 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 AABBCCBBDD boundA · profoundA · nightB · plightB · saidC · bedC · wightB · tightB · pleaD · seeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By the night-watch the hands of a person were bound ; | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| All the night he showed grief and affliction profound. | 12 | ·······˘/˘˘/ |
| It arrived at his ear, in that dark, dismal night, | 12 | ·˘/······/˘· |
| That a man was bemoaning his famishing plight. | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| The fettered thief heard the lamenting, and said: | 12 | ·/˘˘···˘/˘·· |
| "How long will you blubber from grief? Go to bed! | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Go thank the Almighty ! oh destitute wight ! | 11 | ···˘/˘·/˘·· |
| "That the night-watch with thongs have not tied your hands tight." | 12 | ············ |
| Do not weep much, although you have Poverty's plea, | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| When a person more poor than yourself you can see ! | 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.