Analysis of The Guest House

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi 1207 (Balkh) – 1273 (Konya )



This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


Scheme AX BCD XXADXXX BXX CXX
Poetic Form
Metre 110101011 1001001010 010010010 11000101 11010100 1000111 101101110 11000111 1011100 11111000 1111011 11101 01101010 1110110 00110 11010101 011111 101101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 525
Words 96
Sentences 9
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 2, 3, 7, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 84
Words per stanza (avg) 19
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

29 sec read
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Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, and more popularly simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. more…

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