The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXIII

Quatrain XXIII is the third and final quatrain in what I consider to be a linked series that includes Quatrains XXI and XXII.


First Edition: Quatrain XXIII

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend.
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End.


Second Edition: Quatrain XXVI

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!



Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXIV

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!


The only changes I can detect involve punctuation. In the First Edition, the period at the end of the second line becomes and remains a semi-colon in the Second and Fifth Editions. The comma at the end of the third line in the First and Second Editions has disappeared by the Fifth Edition. The period at the end of the fourth line in the First Edition changes to an exclamation point in the Second and Fifth Editions. These changes may signal a subtle change in meaning, but, except for the substitution of the exclamation point to denote intensity, I don't really see it.

As I mentioned above, I see this as the final quatrain in a linked series. In Quatrain XXI, the poet points out that even "the loveliest and the best" have gone on before us. In Quatrain XXII, we are told that "Ourselves must we beneath the couch of Earth/ Descend, ourselves to make a Couch. . ." In other words, all must die.

In the final quatrain in the "series," Quatrain XXIII, the poet then urges us to use what little time we have "Before we too into the Dust descend;/Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie. . .", a clear reference to Genesis 3, 19, the King James Version.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.


One minor difference, of course, is that the Biblical verse refers to sweat and bread and makes no mention of wine or song or singers.

The last line, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and -- sans End, is frequently quoted and often paraphrased to suit the authors' point. It, also, is a reference to another Biblical injunction, this one from Ecclesiastes Chapter 8, 15:

Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.


One other point about the last line is that it is frequently paraphrased as "wine, women, and song," presumably the most significant ingredients of a life of pleasure. FitzGerald, though, expands his appeal to all members of his readership by referring to an ambiguous "Singer."

The last phrase--Sans End-- repeats a common theme in FitzGerald's version of The Rubaiyat, that death is eternal. There is no end to it, and in later quatrains, he will point out that no one returns from death.

This quatrain then echoes earlier quatrains by reminding us to "make the most" of what time remains because once we die, we will be without wine, without song, and without singers. What comes then will be endless.