“Well,”. murmur’d one, “Let whoso make or buy, “My Clay with long Oblivion is gone dry: “But fill me with the old …

‘Tis but a Tent where takes his one day’s rest A Sultán to the realm of Death addrest; The Sultán rises, and …

You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house; Divorced old barren Reason from …

Yon rising Moon that looks for us again– How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; How oft hereafter rising look for …

Yet Ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! That Youth’s sweet-scented manuscript should close! The Nightingale that in the branches sang, …

YESTERDAY This Day’s Madness did prepare; TO-MORROW’S Silence, Triumph, or Despair: Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why: Drink! …

Would you that spangle of Existence spend About THE SECRET–quick about it, Friend! A Hair perhaps divides the False and True– And …

Would but the Desert of the Fountain yield One glimpse–if dimly, yet indeed, reveal’d, To which the fainting Traveller might spring, As …

Would but some wingéd Angel ere too late Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of Fate, And make the stern Recorder otherwise Enregister, …

With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow; And this was …

With me along the strip of Herbage strown That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of Slave and Sultan …

With Earth’s first Clay They did the Last Man knead And there of the Last Harvest sow’d the Seed: And the first …

Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside, And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Were’t not a Shame–were’t not …

Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare? A Blessing, we should use …

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words …

Whose secret Presence, through Creation’s veins Running Quicksilver-like eludes your pains; Taking all shapes from Máh to Máhi; and They change and …

Whether at Naishápúr or Babylon, Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run, The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, …

Whereat some one of the loquacious Lot– I think a Súfi pipkin–waxing hot– “All this of Pot and Potter–Tell me, then, “Who …

When You and I behind the Veil are past, Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last, Which of our …

What, without asking, hither hurried Whence And, without asking, Whither hurried hence! Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown …

What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious Something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain Of Everlasting Penalties, …

What! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay’d— Sue for a Debt he never did …

Well, let it take them! What have we to do With Kaikobád the Great, or Kaikhosrú? Let Zál and Rustum bluster as …

Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute; Better be jocund with the fruitful …

We are no other than a moving row Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held In …

Wake! For the Sun, who scatter’d into flight The Stars before him from the Field of Night, Drives Night along with them …

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: And Bahrám, that great Hunter–the Wild …

Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many a Knot unravel’d …

Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his destined …

There was the Door to which I found no Key; There was the Veil through which I might not see: some little …

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn I lean’d, the Secret of my Life to learn: And Lip to Lip …

Then said a Second–“Ne’er a peevish Boy “Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy; “And He that with his …

Then of the THEE IN ME who works behind The Veil, I lifted up my hands to find A lamp amid the …

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face, Lighting …

The Revelations of Devout and Learn’d Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn’d, Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep …

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half …

The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; And He that toss’d …

The mighty Mahmúd, Allah-breathing Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters before …

The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute: The sovereign Alchemist that-in a trice Life’s leaden metal into …

That ev’n my buried Ashes such a snare Of. Vintage shall fling up into the Air As not a True-believer passing by …

Strange, is it not that of the myriads who Before us pass’d the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell …

Some for the Glories of This World; and some Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come; Ah, take the Cash, and let …

Perplext no more with Human or Divine, To-morrow’s tangle to the winds resign, And lose your fingers in the tresses of The …

So while the Vessels one by one were speaking, The little Moon look’d in that all were seeking: And then they jogg’d …

So when that Angel of the darker Drink At last shall find you by the river-brink, And, offering his Cup, invite your …

Said one among them–“Surely not in vain “My substance of the common Earth was ta’en “And to this Figure moulded, to be …

Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small, That stood along the floor and by the wall; And some loquacious Vessels …

Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing at least is certain–This Life flies; One thing is certain and the …

Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, And ev’n with Paradise devise the Snake: For all the Sin wherewith the …

Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestined …

Look to the blowing Rose about us–“Lo, “Laughing,” she says, “into the world I blow, “At once the silken tassel of my …

Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough …

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by …

Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose, And Jamshyd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows; But still a Ruby kindles in …

Into this Universe, and Why not knowing Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing; And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, …

Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before I swore–but was I sober when I swore? And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand My …

Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my credit in this World much wrong: Have drown’d my Glory in …

I think the Vessel, that with fugitive Articulation answer’d, once did live, And drink; and Ah! the passive Lip I kiss’d, How …

I tell you this–When, started from the Goal, Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal Of Heav’n Parwin and Mushtari they flung, …

I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return’d to …