The two authors whom we shall consider in this lecture,
although they have come into our literature but recently, yet represent
very ancient thought. There is nothing whatsoever that is modern about
them. They describe bed-rock human passions and longings, sorrowings
and consolations. Each may be claimed as a revival of ancient paganism,
but only one of them is capable of translation into a useful idealism.
OMAR KAYYAM
In the twelfth century, at Khorassan in Persia Omar Kayyam the poet was
born. He lived and died at Naishapur, following the trade of a
tent-maker, acquiring knowledge of every available kind, but with
astronomy for his special study. His famous poem, the _Rubaiyat_, was
first seen by Fitzgerald in 1856 and published in 1868. So great was the
sensation produced in England by the innovating sage, that in 1895 the
Omar Kayyam Club was founded by Professor Clodd, and that club has since
come to be considered "the blue ribbon of literary associations."
In Omar's time Persian poetry was in the hands of the Sufis, or
religious teachers of Persia. He found them writing verses which
professed to be mystical and spiritual, but which might sometimes be
suspected of earthlier meanings lurking beneath the pantheistic veil.
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