Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Khayyam

ABC Wednesday
March 25th, 2015

K is the letter

Omar Khayyam and lines from his Rubaiyat are the subject

Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1048-1131, well known for his mathematical theories, but also for his poetry, especially among the Romantics!!


Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

or perhaps...

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and Future Fears -
Tomorrow? - Why, Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years

Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to Rest.


 or this....


I sometimes think that never blows so Red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the garden Wears
Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.






For more Ks skip on over to ABC Wednesday, here, with many thanks to Roger and Denise, and those who visit on their behalf.

5 comments:

ChrisJ said...

Beautiful poetry. I've known some of his works. I need to go back and read some more.

The Weaver of Grass said...

One of my favourite poems Hildred. The man whol translated it, Edward Fitzgerald, was an interesting man too.

ellen b. said...

Very interesting. I wish I was more of a poetry person.

Roger Owen Green said...

classic poem!

ROG, ABCW

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

As a young girl growing up in the South my mama was taught to "declaim" poetry to entertain parlour company.

When my brother and I were small, she liked to would recite her favorites to us as bedtime stories. "Jug of Wine.." was one of her 'set pieces'.

By then, it was another era and another part of the country -- nobody else in our small town 'out west' much cared about that sort of thing. Honestly, I didn't much like the poetry either back then, but I always did love hearing about her childhood.

How I wish now that I could hear her recite again, when I would actually appreciate the poetry!