See How the Roses Burn!

“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.