The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
XCVII explained
The speaker yearns for even a dim glimpse of the Fountain in the desert, a source of relief for the fainting traveler, comparing the desperate hope to the resilience of trampled grass springing back.
What happens
The speaker yearns for even a dim glimpse of the Fountain in the desert, a source of relief for the fainting traveler, comparing the desperate hope to the resilience of trampled grass springing back.
Themes in this chapter
The Quest for Meaning
The yearning for a glimpse of the Fountain represents the search for spiritual or existential truth in a barren world.
Skepticism and Doubt
The conditional 'Would but' and 'if dimly, yet indeed' express doubt about whether any revelation is possible.
Key passages
“Would but the Desert of the Fountain yield One glimpse—if dimly, yet indeed, reveal’d, To which the fainting Traveller might spring, As springs the trampled herbage of the field!”
If only the barren desert would offer even a faint, true vision of the Fountain, so that the exhausted wanderer could leap toward it like crushed grass rising again.
The Fountain symbolizes a source of life or truth; the trampled herbage suggests resilience and hope.