Analysis of O Cup Bearer

Shams al-Din Hafiz 1315 (Shiraz) – 1390 (Shiraz)



OH Cup-bearer, set my glass afire
With the light of wine! oh minstrel, sing:
The world fulfilleth my heart's desire!
Reflected within the goblet's ring
I see the glow of my Love's red cheek,
And scant of wit, ye who fail to seek
The pleasures that wine alone can bring!

Let not the blandishments be checked
That slender beauties lavish on me,
Until in the grace of the cypress decked,
My Love shall come like a ruddy pine-tree
He cannot perish whose heart doth hold
The life love breathes-though my days are told,
In the Book of the World lives my constancy.

But when the Day of Reckoning is here,
I fancy little will be the gain
That accrues to the Sheikh for his lawful cheer,
Or to me for the draught forbidden I drain.
The drunken eyes of my comrades shine,
And I too, stretching my hand to the wine,
On the neck of drunkenness loosen the rein.

Oh wind, if thou passest the garden close
Of my heart's dear master, carry for me
The message I send to him, wind that blows!
'Why hast thou thrust from thy memory
My hapless name?' breathe low in his ear;
'Knowest thou not that the day is near
When nor thou nor any shall think on me?'

If with tears, oh Hafiz, thine eyes are wet,
Scatter them round thee like grain, and snare
The Bird of joy when it comes to thy net.
As the tulip shrinks from the cold night air,
So shrank my heart and quailed in the shade
Oh Song-bird Fortune, the toils are laid,
When shall thy bright wings lie pinioned there?

The heavens' green sea and the bark therein,
The slender bark of the crescent moon,
Are lost in thy bounty's radiant noon,
Vizir and pilgrim, Kawameddin!


Scheme XAXABBA CDCDEED FGHGIIG XDXDFHD JKJKLLK XMMG
Poetic Form
Metre 111011101 101111101 01111010 01001011 110111111 011111111 010110111 11010011 110101011 0100110101 1111101011 110101111 011111111 00110111100 1101110011 110101101 10110111101 11110110011 01011111 0111011101 10111001001 111110101 1111101011 0101111111 111111100 110111011 11110111 1111101111 111111111 101111101 0111111111 1010110111 111101001 111100111 11111111 0101100101 010110101 110111001 10101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,572
Words 306
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 4
Lines Amount 39
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 208
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:32 min read
239

Shams al-Din Hafiz

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎), known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ, Ḥāfeẓ, 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper' and as "Hafiz", was a Persian poet who "lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy". more…

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