"Edward Fitzgerald, A Loaf Of Bread, A Jug Of Wine, And..."
by Edward Fitzgerald A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— O, Wilderness were Paradise enow! Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come; Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go, Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum! Laughing,' she says, 'into the world I blow, At once the silken tassel of my Purse Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.' And those who flung it to the winds like Rain Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd As, buried once, Men want dug up again. Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his destined Hour, and went his way. The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: And Bahrám, that great Hunter—the wild Ass Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep. The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head. Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean— Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen! TO-DAY of past Regrets and Future Fears: To-morrow!—Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years. That from his Vintage rolling Time hath prest, Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before, And one by one crept silently to rest. They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom, Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth Descend—ourselves to make a Couch—for whom? Before we too into the Dust descend; Dust unto Dust, and under Dust to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End! And wash my Body whence the Life has died, And lay me, shrouded in the living Leaf, By some not unfrequented Garden-side.... How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; How oft hereafter rising look or us Through this same Garden—and for one in vain! Among the Guests star-scatter'd on the Grass, And in your joyous errand reach the spot Where I made One—turn down an empty Glass! Edward Fitzgerald born Edward Purcell, March 31, 1809. In 1818, his father, John Purcell, changed the family name to Fitzgerald, the arms and name of his wife's family, the FitzGeralds. Some spell Edward Fitzgerald with a captial G... Edward Fitzgerald died on June 14, 1883).
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