Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 32 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a page of running verse poetry, not a penny dreadful as stated in the prompt's premise. The page presents four quatrains (XX-XXIII) from *Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám*, a philosophical poem about mortality, love, and the passage of time. The verses meditate on death—describing how those we loved have "crept silently to rest" and warning that we too must eventually "beneath the Couch of Earth / Descend." The text emphasizes transience and the inevitability of death, using imagery of herbs, cups, and summer blooms. This appears to be from a Victorian edition of the classic Persian-inspired poem.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
% s 6 RUBAIYAT OF (\ XX. And this reviving Herb whose tender Green Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean— Ah, lean upon it lightly ! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen ! XXI. Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears \/ To-pay of past Regret and future Fears : To-morrow !—Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n thousand Years. XXII. For some we loved, the loveliest and the best That from his Vintage rolling Time hath prest, Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before, And one by one crept silently to rest. XXIII. And we, that now make merry in the Room They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom, Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth Descend—ourselves to make a Couch—for whom ? } & ite (C(O) MIGDoOo <S 4(CO) Amn