Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OMAR KHAYYAM, THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA, by ANNIE MATHESON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OMAR KHAYYAM, THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Friend, is it well with thee? Over thy grave
Last Line: His love the fire that will consume and save?
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death; Graves; Omar Khayyam (1048-1122); Poetry & Poets; Graveyards; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


'With a poet's love of beauty, Omar willed that his tomb should be "in a
spot where the north wind may scatter roses over it;" and his pupil, Khwajah
Nizami, relates that he visited the poet's grave, and found it just outside a
garden at Naishápúr, and saw that trees stretched their boughs over
the garden wall, and dropped flowers upon the tomb, "so as the stone was hidden

under them."'—Contemporary Review, March, 1876.

FRIEND, is it well with thee? Over thy grave,
Shapen like hearts the fallen rose-leaves lie,
That yester-night blushed pink against the sky,
And mocked the north wind with their splendour brave.

Thou, who hast struggled where the tempests rave,
Where still the petals from life's blossom fly,
Blown by Time's breath,—thou who in vain didst try
Joy's foaming wine-cup from Death's hand to save;
Hast thou at last the secret? Is the bound
Of human knowledge passed? Does He who gave
Those passionate yearnings once to see Him, round
Thy being with His own? No more a slave,
Hast thou at last thy long-lost Father found,—
His love the fire that will consume and save?





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