Analysis of The Secret Draught of Wine

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



THE secret draught of wine and love repressed
Are joys foundationless--then come whate'er
May come, slave to the grape I stand confessed!
Unloose, oh friend, the knot of thy heart's care,
Despite the warning that the Heavens reveal!
For all his thought, never astronomer
That loosed the knot of Fate those Heavens conceal!

Not all the changes that thy days unfold
Shall rouse thy wonder; Time's revolving sphere
Over a thousand lives like thine has rolled.
That cup within thy fingers, dost not hear
The voices of dead kings speak through the clay
Kobad, Bahman, Djemshid, their dust is here,
'Gently upon me set thy lips!' they say.

What man can tell where Kaus and Kai have gone?
Who knows where even now the restless wind
Scatters the dust of Djem's imperial throne?
And where the tulip, following close behind
The feet of Spring, her scarlet chalice rears,
There Ferhad for the love of Shirin pined,
Dyeing the desert red with his heart's tears.

Bring, bring the cup! drink we while yet we may
To our soul's ruin the forbidden draught
Perhaps a treasure-trove is hid away
Among those ruins where the wine has laughed!--
Perhaps the tulip knows the fickleness
Of Fortune's smile, for on her stalk's green shaft
She bears a wine-cup through the wilderness.

The murmuring stream of Ruknabad, the breeze
That blows from out Mosalla's fair pleasaunce,
Summon me back when I would seek heart's ease,
Travelling afar; what though Love's countenance
Be turned full harsh and sorrowful on me,
I care not so that Time's unfriendly glance
Still from my Lady's beauty turned be.

Like Hafiz, drain the goblet cheerfully
While minstrels touch the lute and sweetly sing,
For all that makes thy heart rejoice in thee
Hangs of Life's single, slender, silken string.


Scheme ABAXCBC DXDEFEF XGXGHGX FIFIJIJ KHKXLXL LMLM
Poetic Form
Metre 0101110101 1111110 1111011101 111011111 01010101001 1111100100 11011111001 1101011101 1111010101 1001011111 1101110111 0101111101 11011111 1001111111 1111110111 1111010101 1011101001 01010100101 0111010101 111011101 1001011111 1101111111 11011001001 0101011101 0111010111 0101010100 1101110111 1101110100 010011101 1111111 1011111111 10001111100 1111010011 1111110101 111101011 111010100 1101010101 1111110101 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,722
Words 303
Sentences 15
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 4
Lines Amount 39
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 232
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:34 min read
96

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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