Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 48 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 48: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running verse poetry from what appears to be "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám" (here spelled "Rybaiyat"), presented in numbered quatrains (LXXXIII-LXXXVI). The text uses an extended metaphor of clay vessels discussing their creation and purpose—debating whether their maker (the Potter) intended them to be broken, and questioning divine will. The page contains no illustrations, only decorative floral borders at top and bottom corners typical of Victorian book design.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RYBAIYAT OF : LXXXITI. Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small, That stood along the floor and by the wall ; And some loquacious Vessels were; and some Listen’d perhaps, but never talk’d at all. LXXXIy. Said one among them—‘“ Surely not in vain My substance of the common Earth was ta’en And to this Figure moulded, to be broke, Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again.” LXXXy. Then said a Second—‘“ Ne’er a peevish Boy “Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy ; ‘“And He that with his hand the Vessel made ‘Will surely not in after Wrath destroy.” LXXXVI. After a momentary 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 P” BF (C(O) MIGDoOo <S 4(CO) mn ‘