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Emotion and Closure in the Sound Expressiveness of Quatrains from Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Emotion and Closure in the Sound Expressiveness of Quatrains from Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. C. Whissell.
Empirical Studies of the Arts 18 (2000) 2, p. 135-149.

Summary

This article follows two branches of Tsur’s cognitive poetic theory to their logical conclusion and applies them to Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam where they are fully validated. The first branch emphasizes the expressiveness of speech sounds (phonemes) and the second branch the importance of the Gestalt principle of closure to poetry. Rubaiyat were phonetically transcribed and their phonemes were then categorized in terms of emotional character. The closural device of a return to baseline described the preferential use of active phonemes in the rubaiyat while the closural allusion of definitive termination described the preferential use of pleasant phonemes. Clynes’ concept of the essentic form for grief was used to explain the rise and fall of preferential activation in the first three lines of each quatrain. The emotional picture drawn of the rubaiyat on the basis of these procedures was one of fatalism or emotional resignation. General patterns and individual examples are discussed.

The Protean precursor: Browning and Edward Fitzgerald

The Protean precursor: Browning and Edward Fitzgerald. J. Woolford.
Victorian Literature and Culture 24 (1996), p. 313-332.

Woolford analyzes Robert Browning’s varying attitude towards FitzGerald, as reflected in “Rabbi ben Ezra” and “To Edward FitzGerald,” and argues that FitzGerald, though a contemporary, at times figured for Browning as a Bloomian precursor.

Variants in Khayyamic Poetry

Variants in Khayyamic Poetry. Ralph Groves.
Islamic culture 69 (1995), nr. 3, p. 47-64.

This study will examine some of the variants found in Khayyamic poetry. After a brief introduction to Omar Khayyam, some variants in Khayyamic poetry will be presented to the reader. A hypothesis as to the causes of variations will be put forth and then criteria will be suggested to the reader for choosing the variant roba’i most loyal to Khayyam’s style.

Eine Welt in Worten : die Quellen von J.H. Leopold

Eine Welt in Worten : die Quellen von J.H. Leopold. H.T.M. van Vliet.
Editio : internationales Jahrbuch für Editionswissenschaft 11 (1997), p. 116-128.

Buchstäblich alles konnte Leopold für seine Arbeit verwenden, und er hat es auch verwandt: an erster Stelle natürlich Texte, sowohl literarische als auch nichtliterarische, variierend vom Zeitungsausschnitt bis zum Roman, vom Gedicht bis zum Zeitschriftenartikel, vom Reisebericht bis zur philosophischen Abhandlung, ja, selbst bis hin zu Briefen, die er erhielt. Unterschiedliche Typen von Äußerungen anderer wurden in Leopolds sprachliches Universum aufgenommen und fanden wie von selbst ihren Platz in einem der vielen Dossiers mit Gedichten in statu nascendi.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Jeremy Parrott.
Book and Magazine Collector (1997) nr. 163 p. 40-52.

Edward FitzGerald’s famous translation of the poem has been issued in many collectable editions

Bibliografie

Bibliografie. J. Coumans.
Boekenwereld 13 (1997) nr. 3 (mrt.), p. 130-144

Annotated list of Dutch translations