Chapter IX: Story of a Father and Daughter
In the thought of a journey, I slumbered one night,And followed a large caravan at daylight.A horrible dust-storm arose with the wind,And darkened the Earth in the eyes of mankind.A maiden, who had on the way her abode,From her father, with veil, wiped the dust of the road."Oh my lovely-faced daughter!" the father expressed,"Whose heart out of love for me's greatly distressed!Will not dust in these eyes soon so plenteous appear,That you cannot again with your veil wipe them clear?Your affectionate soul, like an obstinate steed,To the grave is conveying you onwards, with speed.Fate will suddenly shatter your stirrups, at last,And the reins you can't seize, when the grave holds you fast."
Words in this poem
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: Story of a Father and Daughter 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 IX: Story of a Father and Daughter, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-11.html, id L29745.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: Story of a Father and Daughter is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG nightA · daylightA · windB · mankindB · abodeC · roadC · expressedD · distressedD · appearE · clearE · steedF · speedF · lastG · fastG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the thought of a journey, I slumbered one night, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| And followed a large caravan at daylight. | 12 | ·/˘˘··/˘··/· |
| A horrible dust-storm arose with the wind, | 11 | ·/˘˘··˘/··· |
| And darkened the Earth in the eyes of mankind. | 12 | ·/˘˘······// |
| A maiden, who had on the way her abode, | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| From her father, with veil, wiped the dust of the road. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| "Oh my lovely-faced daughter!" the father expressed, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| "Whose heart out of love for me's greatly distressed! | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| Will not dust in these eyes soon so plenteous appear, | 13 | ········/˘˘˘/ |
| That you cannot again with your veil wipe them clear? | 12 | ··˘/˘/······ |
| Your affectionate soul, like an obstinate steed, | 12 | ·˘/˘˘···/˘˘· |
| To the grave is conveying you onwards, with speed. | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Fate will suddenly shatter your stirrups, at last, | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| And the reins you can't seize, when the grave holds you fast." | 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.