For some time he wandered about Persia
in a destitute condition, plying the hereditary trade of tent-maker, but
at length poverty compelled him to quit his native country for good and
to try his fortunes in a land so remote that the dissolute record of his
parent could no longer hound him. Borneo was the island to which the
poet fled, and here the historian finds him some years later prospering
in the world's goods and greatly reverenced by the inhabitants. Although
Omar, Jr., was undoubtedly the greatest man that Borneo has yet
produced, he must not be confused in the mind of the reader with the
Wild Man of Borneo, who, although himself a poet, was a man of far less
culture than the author of the present Rubaiyat.
While not a Good Templar, the younger Omar showed a commendable tendency
toward reform. The sensitive Soul of the poet was ever cankered with the
thought that his father's jovial habits had put him in a false position,
and that it was his filial duty to retrieve the family reputation. It
was his life work to inculcate into the semi-barbaric minds of the
people with whom he had taken abode the thought that the alcoholic
pleasures of his father were false joys, and that (as sung in number
VI), -
"There's Comfort only in the Smoking Car.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25