Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

EDWARD FITZGERALD, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;

Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?

EDWARD FITZGERALD, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see:

Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE

There seem'd -- and then no more of THEE and ME.

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon

Turns Ashes -- or it prospers; and anon,

Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face

Lighting a little Hour or two -- is gone.

'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:

Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,

And one by one back in the Closet lays.

One Moment in Annihilation's Waste,

One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste--

The Stars are Setting and the Caravan

Starts for the Dawn of Nothing -- Oh, make haste!