OMAR KHAYYAM POSITIVE

IN all the two-and-seventy creeds you find
Some spark of immortality enshrined.
But Omar Khayyam, unconvinced, declared
That Life departs and leaves but dust behind:

For fabled Heaven make thou no sacrifice.
Mark rather my example and advice:
Seek slender damsels, roses, verses, wine,
And enter now the Prophet’s Paradise.

OMAR IMPIOUS

LET sour admonishers no longer shrug
Their shoulders, or distort their features smug
Because I pray not. I’ll to holy mosque,
And kneeling there— will steal a praying-rug.

OMAR IN AN AERATED-BREAD SHOP

SINCE life is brief, and wine for wealth alone,
O maid with cheeks like roses newly-blown,
And figure slender as your weekly wage.
Bring me a cup of tea and half a scone.

OMAR AND THE SUNDAY LEAGUE

THE day the two-and-seventy sects regard
As sacred, we unorthodox discard.
Come then, O tulip-cheeked, to Leicester Square
Where music flows but wine, alas, is barred.

OMAR TO A MOUNTAIN-HOTEL-KEEPER

RESPECT the altitude of your hotel.
Nor let ambition cater worse than well.
Better a crust of bread and jar of wine
Than many courses, all inedible.