Analysis of To Linger in a Garden Fair
Shams al-Din Hafiz 1315 (Shiraz) – 1390 (Shiraz)
MIRTH, Spring, to linger in a garden fair,
What more has earth to give? All ye that wait,
Where is the Cup-bearer, the flagon where?
When pleasant hours slip from the hand of Fate,
Reckon each hour as a certain gain;
Who seeks to know the end of mortal care
Shall question his experience in vain.
Thy fettered life hangs on a single thread--
Some comfort for thy present ills devise,
But those that time may bring thou shalt not dread.
Waters of Life and Irem's Paradise--
What meaning do our dreams and pomp convey,
Save that beside a mighty stream, wide-fed,
We sit and sing of wine and go our way!
The modest and the merry shall be seen
To boast their kinship with a single voice;
There are no differences to choose between,
Thou art but flattering thy soul with choice!
Who knows the Curtain's secret? . . . Heaven is mute
And yet with Him who holds the Curtain, e'en
With Him, oh Braggart, thou would'st raise dispute!
Although His thrall shall miss the road and err,
'Tis but to teach him wisdom through distress,
Else Pardon and Compassionate Mercy were
But empty syllables and meaningless.
The Zealot thirsts for draughts of Kausar's wine,
And Hafiz doth an earthly cup prefer--
But what, between the two, is God's design?
Scheme | ABABCAC DXDXEDE FGFGHXH AXIXJIJ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111000101 1111111111 110110011 11010110111 1011010101 1111011101 1101010001 1101110101 1101110101 1111111111 10110110 11011010101 1101010111 11011101101 0100010111 111110101 11110001101 1111001111 1101101011 01111101011 1111111101 111110101 1111110101 11000100100 1101000100 010111111 011110101 1101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,211 |
Words | 221 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 240 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 12, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 92 Views
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