Afghan soil and immediately began displaying the behavior that was typical for Afghans: disunity and strife appeared among the princes and a passionate and bloody struggle was the result. In this manner, Alexander shows his mother that as soon as they somehow find themselves in proximity of the soil of their country patriotically-minded Afghans immediately display bravery and passion. But these characteristics are also often used against their own people, causing harm to Afghans themselves. Towards the end the poem, Pazhwak points out that not only Alexander but many other rulers and people that came to Afghanistan experienced the Afghans’ strengths and vulnerability. This conflicting nature of Afghan mindset is portrayed as a challenge that illustrates the fierce patriotism of Afghans as well as the cause of their downfall. The patriotism of Afghans is best illustrated in the imagery that Pazhwak uses in the following verse: Even thousands of wine-filled barrels fail to intoxicate the patriot, The way a tiny particle of homeland's dust does.[21] In this verse, Pazhwak created an original way of comparing intoxication (or perhaps madness) with something else – in this case a tiny dust particle which can fully intoxicate the patriot. Thousands of barrels are a huge amount, a tiny particle, by contrast, is very small. The imagery of the dust particle that has the effect of clouding the mind, an effect that even a thousand barrels of wine cannot achieve in a wine lover, leaves no room for readers but to take in the extraordinary place that the homeland occupies among patriotic Afghans. The lines above are the poem's key verses and have been frequently quoted. Furthermore, the passage needs to be regarded in the context of the following verses where, in the second half verse, we read: Blind are the eyes which look at the path of hope for the homeland.[22] In this verse Pazhwak explicitly criticizes the people of his homeland, warning them that blindness creates disunity, leading to hatred and the killing of each other. The poem can be described as an epic about heroism but with a didactic backdrop. It is remarkable that Pazhwak does not communicate the message contained in the poem by using nationalist or chauvinist clichés. The poem's intention is ultimately to convey that if united and if they don't allow themselves to become prisoners of their own patriotism, Afghans can handle any foreign aggressor. Popular Culture