Chapter IX: Story of a Drunken Harvest-burner
In the month of July, some one garnered his grain ;And cast further care for it out of his brain.He got drunk, and a fire he enkindled, one night ;The unfortunate fool burned his harvest up quite.Next day, as a gleaner, his time he employed ;For a grain was not left of his harvest, destroyed.When they saw the poor man much afflicted in head,A man to the son of his bosom, thus, said :"If you wish not, like him, to misfortune to turn,Your harvest, through madness, take care not to burn !"If your life from your hand has in wickedness flown,You are he who a light on his harvest has thrown.To gather a harvest by gleaning's a shame,After giving the harvest you reaped to the flame.On the seed of the faith, oh, my life, do not trade!Do not cast to the wind the good name you have made!When a luckless man falls into bondage, through fate ;The fortunate men take a hint from his state.Ere Punishment reaches you, knock Pardon's door !For under the rod it is useless to roar.Raise your head from the collar of negligence ! lest,To-morrow, some shame should remain in your breast.
Words in this poem
- gleaner n.
- One who gathers after reapers.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: Story of a Drunken Harvest-burner 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 Drunken Harvest-burner, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-19.html, id L29753.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: Story of a Drunken Harvest-burner is 22 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK grainA · brainA · nightB · quiteB · employedC · destroyedC · headD · saidD · turnE · burnE · flownF · thrownF · shameG · flameG · tradeH · madeH · fateI · stateI · doorJ · roarJ · lestK · breastK
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 month of July, some one garnered his grain ; | 12 | ·····/··/˘·· |
| And cast further care for it out of his brain. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| He got drunk, and a fire he enkindled, one night ; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| The unfortunate fool burned his harvest up quite. | 12 | ·˘/˘˘···/˘·· |
| Next day, as a gleaner, his time he employed ; | 12 | ····/˘···˘/˘ |
| For a grain was not left of his harvest, destroyed. | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| When they saw the poor man much afflicted in head, | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| A man to the son of his bosom, thus, said : | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| "If you wish not, like him, to misfortune to turn, | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| Your harvest, through madness, take care not to burn !" | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| If your life from your hand has in wickedness flown, | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| You are he who a light on his harvest has thrown. | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| To gather a harvest by gleaning's a shame, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| After giving the harvest you reaped to the flame. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| On the seed of the faith, oh, my life, do not trade! | 12 | ············ |
| Do not cast to the wind the good name you have made! | 12 | ············ |
| When a luckless man falls into bondage, through fate ; | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| The fortunate men take a hint from his state. | 11 | ·/˘˘······· |
| Ere Punishment reaches you, knock Pardon's door ! | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| For under the rod it is useless to roar. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Raise your head from the collar of negligence ! lest, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘· |
| To-morrow, some shame should remain in your breast. | 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.