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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN A COPY OF OMAR KHAYYAM by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: THESE PEARLS OF THOUGHT IN PERSIAN GULFS WERE BRED
Last Line: GROPING, YOU MAY LIKE OMAR GRASP A PEARL.
Subject(s): OMAR KHAYYAM (1048-1122); WRITING & WRITERS;

THESE pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were
bred,
Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
Fit rosary for a queen, in shape and hue,
When Contemplation tells her pensive beads
Of mortal thoughts, forever old and new.
Fit for a queen? Why, surely then for you!
The moral? Where Doubt's eddies toss and
twirl
Faith's slender shallop till her footing reel,
Plunge: if you find not peace beneath the whirl,
Groping, you may like Omar grasp a pearl.



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