COVE

The eleventh stanza “Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, / A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse–and Thou / Beside me singing in the Wilderness– / And Wilderness is Paradise enow.” (Fitzgerald, XI) (Figure 1) is about how one should enjoy the fruits of the moment. That we should be content with the simple things in life and enjoy the present moment. The illustration that accompanies this stanza shows a man, content with his moment (Figure 2). He is surrounded by that serene paradise and enjoys some good food and wine. Although enjoying the present moment is what this stanza is about, we must ask ourselves, why does FitzGerald or Khayyam want us to? Simply, because they had skepticism about what happens after we die. And they, through this verse, argue that paradise is in there here and now, not after we pass, and certainly not in the past or future.

The rest of the book is essentially the same themes repeated, and this stanza is the magnum opus of the book. It encapsulates the ideas simply and brings a vivid image to the reader. The illustration helps express and give even more weight to the verse. The rest of the book emulates these ideas of simplicity and enjoying the little things. (Figure 3) The book is small and compact, and isn’t flashy at all. It doesn’t draw the eye to it, and for good reason, as it only wants to be enjoyed by those who can relish these ideas. 

Looking closely at the stanza, the first line is setting us up. It places the reader under the branches of a tree, with a loaf of bread. The second line brings in wine, a poem, and “Thou”, which is an archaic word for “you”. This is where it gets special, I believe what FitzGerald was trying to do was make the reader imagine someone special with them under the tree. Because I don’t believe this verse is trying to say “you” as in the reader, but whoever the first person the reader thinks of as “you”. A good friend, significant other, or whoever. It wants the reader to place themselves there, with their “you”. The third line enforces this as, besides the reader, their “you” starts singing while they sit in the wilderness. The fourth line delivers what most people would likely feel in that moment, and that is, this is close enough to paradise for me. 

The illustration, for the most part, does a good job of conveying this feeling. That this is close enough to paradise, to heaven, for us. And that we should enjoy this paradise while we can. Although one might notice the illustration only has one person in it, and not two. This can be explained, as looking closely at the image, the narrator, who’s supposed to embody the reader, is looking off-page into the distance. I think this was done on purpose, to give a clue to the reader to look at that “you” and enjoy the moment with them. Perhaps, a simpler explanation is that the illustrator likely didn’t want to place a second person in there and take away from the reader's enjoyment of imagining that special person with them.