Page 19 - Omar!

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To Fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

All enter the tavern; Others move to stage right, while Omar sits near
the door. Grape-angel serves wine. Vine-daughter enters from left
with more wine. Omar chats her up, and invites her to a picnic; they
exit left.

But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot
Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:
Let Rustum lay about him as he will,
Or Hatim Tai cry Supper—heed him not.

Scene 2: Late morning, along a river bank.

Omar and Vine-daughter enter right, stroll along riverbank, stop
under tree, spread picnic, and sit. Omar explains the endless cycle of
life and death: nature remains, while men and flowers come and go,
fertilizing the earth for the next generation. After they have some
wine, Bird of Time zips across; and they pack up and exit right.

With me along some Strip of Herbiage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,
Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known,
And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne.

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai
Whose doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his hour or two, and went his way.

Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.
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