Mood. Mood, or atmosphere, is the emotion created in the reader by part or all of a literary work. As you read, think about words that might describe the poem’s mood.
Simile. A simile is a comparison using like or as. As you read stanza 16, identify an example of a simile.
Theme. A theme is a central idea in a literary work. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám expresses the carpe diem, or “seize the day,” theme—a theme that encourages people to enjoy the present moment and make good use of the little time available in life.
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The Rubáiyát is a compilation of roughly five hundred epigrams, or short, often witty sayings, presented in quatrains, or ruba’i, written throughout Khayyám’s life. In his translation, FitzGerald modified the original ordering of the quatrains to increase their thematic coherence. In general, the epigrams, often satiric in tone, express a rebellious dissatisfaction with orthodox belief. Perhaps Khayyám’s idea that one should try to get as much pleasure as possible from each passing moment is part of what attracted FitzGerald to the Persian writer’s work.
While Khayyám rhymed each of the four lines in a quatrain, FitzGerald rhymed only the first, second, and fourth lines of each quatrain in his translation. The content of FitzGerald’s translation mirrors his rhyme scheme, as each third line expresses an idea that is completed in the fourth. This combination defines the “FitzGerald stanza,” which other English writers have adopted. The first edition of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát, containing only seventy-five quatrains, was published in 1859. The definitive fourth edition (1879) included 101 stanzas.
Make a cluster chart listing lines in the poem that refer to this theme.
If you could spend your time in this world just “enjoying the moment,” without worry or care about the future, what would you do? How would you spend your time?
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