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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.

Edward FitzGerald”(1809-1883), British translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam …

Edward FitzGerald”(1809-1883), British translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (by far the most famous translation ever made from Persian verse into English), as well as Jāmī’s Salāmān o Absāl and ʿAṭṭār’s Manṭeq al-ṭayr. D. Davis.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, December 15 1999.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is by far the most famous translation ever made from Persian verse into English, and it had a considerable influence on the development of late Victorian and Edwardian British poetry as well as the awakening of a much wider interest, in English speaking countries and Europe, in Persian literature than had previously been the case

FitzOmar: Live Eagle

FitzOmar: Live Eagle. D. Alexander.
In: Creating Literature Out of Life: The Making of Four Masterpieces. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. p. 45-84.

Gives a biographical sketch that suggests the psychological background and context for FitzGerald’s composition of the first (1859) version of the Rubáiyát.

‘Umar Khayyám: philosopher-poet-scientist.

‘Umar Khayyám: philosopher-poet-scientist. S.H. Nasr.
In: Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia. Ed. by M. Aminrazavi. London, Routledge, 1996, p. 175-178.

Originally as preface in “Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam” , by A. Saidi, 1991

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.

Umar Khayyam

Umar Khayyam
In: Dalal (Ed.) Ethics in Persian poetry (with special reference to Timurid period). Ghulam Abbas Dalal. New Delhi : Abhinav Publications, 1995. ISBN: 8170173140 . Pp. 71–95.

Discusses life of Khayyam and his works, and the views thereon. Was he a poet or not, a drunkard and heretic, and what was his character?

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.