Analysis of Sleep

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



SLEEP on thine eyes, bright as narcissus flowers,
Falls not in vain
And not in vain thy hair's soft radiance showers
Ah, not in vain!
Before the milk upon thy lips was dry,
I said: "Lips where the salt of wit doth lie,
Sweets shall be mingled with thy mockery,
And not in vain!"
Thy mouth the fountain where Life's waters flow,
A dimpled well of tears is set below,
And death lies near to life thy lovers know,
But know in vain!
God send to thee great length of happy days
Lo, not for his own life thy servant prays;
Love's dart in thy bent brows the Archer lays,
Nor shoots in vain.
Art thou with grief afflicted, with the smart
Of absence, and is bitter toil thy part?
Thy lamentations and thy tears, oh Heart,
Are not in vain
Last night the wind from out her village blew,
And wandered all the garden alleys through,
Oh rose, tearing thy bosom's robe in two;
’Twas not in vain!
And Hafiz, though thy heart within thee dies,
Hiding love's agony from curious eyes,
Ah, not in vain thy tears, not vain thy sighs,
Not all in vain


Scheme ABABCCDBEEEBFFFBGGGBHHHBIIIB
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101010 1101 010111110010 1101 0101011111 1111011111 1111011100 0101 1101011101 0101111101 0111111101 1101 1111111101 1111111101 1101110101 1101 1111010101 1100110111 1101111 1101 1101110101 0101010101 111011101 1101 011110111 10110011001 1101111111 1101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,013
Words 199
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 28
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 799
Words per stanza (avg) 197
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Submitted on September 12, 2019

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
12

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…

All Shams al-Din Hafiz poems | Shams al-Din Hafiz Books

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