See How the Roses Burn!

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1300

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“See How the Roses Burn!” is a lyric Sufi love poem. Because it has four lines—a quatrain—and a single rhyme (monorhyme of fire/desire), this poem can be classified as a rubāʿī. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, the Persian quatrain “tersely develop[s] an image, thought, or problem that is then wittily or forcefully resolved in the final line” (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Edited by Stephen Cushman, Clare Cavanagh, Jahan Ramazani, and Paul Rouzer. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2021, page 1227).

The terseness of this form and its simple syntax are well-suited to poetry about love, a force which stupefies and restrains the lover. Similar techniques can be seen in love poetry from other cultures; the Roman poet Catullus, for example, uses them in Poem 85.

Commands

Hafez often uses commands, which lend force to the poem’s resolution and to the ecstatic nature of the poem throughout. Such forceful language is, perhaps, to be expected when it comes to love; both desire and religious ecstasy produce powerful emotions. Emerson reflects this intensity with his use of three exclamation marks in the four lines of “See How the Roses Burn!”.