Omar Khayyam

“ Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin?
LXXXVIII
Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make,
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake:
For all the Sin the Face of wretched Man
Is black with--Man's Forgiveness give--and take! ”

“ The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door!
"You know how little while we have to stay,
"And, once departed, may return no more."
IV
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
V
Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose,
And Jamshýd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;
But still a Ruby gushes from the Vine,
And many a Garden by the Water blows.
VI
And David's lips are lockt ”

“ Look to the blowing Rose about us--"Lo,
"Laughing," she says, "into the world I blow:
"At once the silken tassel of my Purse
"Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."
XVI
For those who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.
XVII
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes---or it prospers ”

“ To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd--"Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
XLI
For has not such a Story from of Old
Down Man's successive generations roll'd
Of such a clod of saturated Earth
Cast by the Maker into Human mould? ”

“ Another Voice, when I am sleeping, cries,
"The Flower should open with the Morning skies."
And a retreating Whisper, as I wake--
"The Flower that once has blown for ever dies."
XXIX
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn :
Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust. ”

“ Said one among them--"Surely not in vain,
"My Substance from the common Earth was ta'en,
"That He who subtly wrought me into Shape
"Should stamp me back to shapeless Earth again?"
XCII
Another said, "Why, ne'er a peevish Boy
"Would break the Cup from which he drank in Joy;
"Shall He that of his own free Fancy made
"The Vessel, in an after-rage destroy!"
XCIII
None answer'd this; but after silence spake
Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make;
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
"What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"
XCIV
Thus with the Dead as with the Living, What? ”

“ They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend, ourselves to make a Couch -- for whom?
XXIV
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled ”