Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 45 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose—specifically poetry—from what appears to be a Victorian edition of the *Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám*. The page contains four numbered quatrains (LXXII-LXXV) presenting philosophical meditations on fate, creation, mortality, and the unknowability of human existence. The verses employ religious and astronomical imagery, urging the reader to drink and accept life's mysteries since the future remains unknowable. The ornamental borders and page numbering (19) indicate this is from the interior of a bound book rather than a penny dreadful installment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OMAR KHAYYAM. -_----- oe + + Oo OO LXXII. And that inverted Bow] they call the Sky, Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die, Lift not your hands to It for help—for It As impotently moves as you or I. LXXIII, With Earth’s first Clay They did the Last Man knead, And there of the Juast Harvest sow’d the Seed : And the first Morning of Creation wrote What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read. LXXIV. YesterDAy This Day’s Madness did prepare ; To-Morrow’s Silence, Triumph, or Despair : Drink ! for you know not whence you came, nor why : Drink ! for you nm not why you go, nor where. LiXxvy. I tell you this—When, started from the Goal, Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal Of Heav’n Parwin and Mushtari they flung, In my predestin’d Plot of Dust and Soul 2% LL Connie OO) Si (