Ride on a magic carpet...
I
Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to flight:
And lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.
When one hears the word Rubaiyat, one automatically thinks of Omar Khayyam, so it is not surprising to find it originated in Persia
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám(1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. For a sample, click HERE.
XI
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 the Wilderness is Paradise enow.
This form consists of four line stanzas (quatrains) and is usually in pentameter form.
Lines one, two, and four rhyme and the third line can be used to interlock the next stanza, if preferred, and by doing so with three or more stanzas, we have a Rubaiyat.
XIII
Look to the Rose that blows 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.”
Schematic
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám consists of numbered quatrains but the rhymes do not interlock. Thus three stanzas would appear as follows (where each x represents a syllable)
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If, however, you prefer and interlocked rhyme scheme, it would appear as follows:
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Since this is a Mini-Challenge, you may like to work on a single quatrain. As I am sure you will appreciate from reading the examples of FitzGerald's translations, decorated by the artwork of Edmund Dulac (1882 - 1953), each one is a gemstone in its own right.
One of my very favourite poets! My copy, bought as a teenager, is much-thumbed. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLet this be my tribute to Wilde...
ReplyDeleteHope you all have a good week! I wrote mine combining two prompts...an extra challenge for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Kerry!
ReplyDeleteI have not had even the slightest urge to write all week, so this has been squeezed like the last bit of toothpaste from the tube. I always find that form is a great way to circumvent the dread "block".
ReplyDeletefun! thank you, kerry. my kids challenged me, too, so i combined them :)
ReplyDeleteI too have been in the writing doldrums over this long and torpid holiday weekend here--thanks for the impetus to sharpen the pen, Kerry. And the Rubaiyat lived on the nightstand with me all through high school--I still open it up and read parts of it out loud to myself when no one's watching--it's a wonderful form for that.
ReplyDeleteI only wrote one quatrain, but it was a nifty challenge. A nice experiment in this form.
ReplyDeleteHello. I vowed not to join any more prompt sites but this was too good to resist. I love Omar! And I too have had a doldrums and like form to deal with them. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kerry-- I couldn't resist, not that current poem up fits this wonderful prompt but wanted to tell you that I was given a copy of... and now I think I'll write the poem of the story, the story of the poem! xxxj
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