Exhibit:

Study of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Preview of images

An in-depth exploration of a 1910 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Alexis Baumgarten

Images in this Exhibit

Description of Text

 

 

The edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám that I have selected is numbered as #39 in the Dr. Sigurd H. Peterson Memorial Collection of 101 versions of this poem. The cover has the title, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and the illustrator, Frank Brawngwyn ARA, listed, but no author of the poem. This leaving out of the author is clarified at the end of the text, which states, “This edition of the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyám is reprinted from Fitzgerald’s translation published in eighteen hundred and fifty-nine.” This edition was published in September of...
Gift Books and Orientalism

 

The poem, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, rose to popularity, in some ways, out of luck. The right person got their hands on it, told their friends, and suddenly people were lining up to purchase copies of this poem. Many different versions were published and produced, ranging from a $25 version, featuring gold leaf designs, all the way to a $1 version and many options in between. Different versions featured different textual embellishments as well, such as biographies on Khayyám or Fitzgerald, and illustrations, which found their way into the poem as well. The versions only...
Close Reading of Stanza XLII

Frank Brangwyn’s illustration of a man carrying a pot on his shoulder correlates with stanza XLII to emphasize the importance of community and worldly pleasures discussed in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Similar to all editions, this version of the poem discusses the value found in enjoying worldly pleasures because of the uncertainty regarding the afterlife. Stanza XLII says: “And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,/Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape/Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and/He bid me taste of it; and ‘twas - the Grape!”

The painting depicts a...