Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 50 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 50: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents running poetry text from what appears to be a Victorian adaptation or parody of *The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam*. The visible stanzas (XCI-XCIII) are meditative verses on death, burial, wine, and regret—the speaker requesting grape wine for his final moments, warning that his ashes will intoxicate passersby, and lamenting that his love of idols has damaged his worldly reputation and reduced his glory to shallow pleasures. The decorative border and Roman numeral headings suggest this is from a serialized or bound edition of Victorian popular literature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RUBAIYAT OF XCI. Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide, And wash the Body whence the Life has died, And lay me, shrouded in the living Leaf, By some not unfrequented Garden-side. ~XCIt. That ev’n my buried Ashes such a snare Of Vintage shall fling up into the Air As not a True-believer passing by But shall be overtaken uhaware. XCIII. Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my credit in this World much wrong : Have drown’d my Glory in a shallow Cup, And sold my Reputation for a Song. — (C(O) MIGDoOo <S 4(CO) inn