And some expectant Devotee who knocks
At that poor House where once I rent my locks,
In vain may seek a Last Cigar and find
My Muse asleep within an empty Box.



Hammam



Notes



I - "Sours the Milk of Life;" thunderstorms, earthquakes and artificial
commotions of the earth are popularly and quasi-scientifically believed
to have the effect of turning milk from sweet to sour; so here the Milk
of Life is soured by the sudden advent of the Brat of Death (Care,
perhaps, who is said to have killed a cat on one occasion). By some
critics it is held that the figure might have been enrichened by the
substitution of the Cream of Life for the Milk of Life.

II- Gorgona is referred to but three times in the present work, in Rubs
II, XXI and XXVI. Number II would lead us to believe that the poet used
her figuratively as Sorrow or Remorse; but the text of XXI and XXVI
point another conclusion. The latter Rubaiyat tell us forcefully that
Gorgona was but too real and that her unloveliness was a sore trial to
the fine attunement of the poet's nerves.