This is another quatrain that first appeared in the Second Edition. FitzGerald then included it in the following three editions.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXVI
Earth could not answer: nor the Seas that mourn
In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn;
Nor Heaven, with those eternal Signs reveal'd
And hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXIII
Earth could not answer; nor the Seas that mourn
In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn;
Nor rolling Heaven, with all his Signs reveal'd
And hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn.
Aside from a punctuation change, the most significant change occurs in the third line. The addition of "rolling" adds a sense of movement or change to Heaven, while the removal of "eternal" suggests that those "Signs reveal'd" are no longer eternal and may be changed.
To see what Earth, the Seas, and Heaven could not answer, we must go back to Quatrain XXXIV to discover that in spite of all his efforts, the Poet/Narrator could not unravel "the Master-knot of Human Fate." In other quatrains, he dismisses those who claim to have the answer. None who have left us have ever returned to tell us.
One thought that has occurred to me is that the reference to Heaven may be a subtle way of referring to astrology. The position of the stars and planets do change, and, therefore, the reading given by an astronomical chart on one viewing may be different on another night. Just what is signified by the Earth and the Seas that mourn escapes me. In addition, just whom the Seas are mourning-- "In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn" -- is also obscure to me.
The main point of this quatrain seems to be that there is no answer to the puzzle of human fate, but this point has already been made in several earlier quatrains. (See Quatrains XXIX, XXX, and XXXIV) However, it must serve some purpose for FitzGerald left the quatrain in, with that modification in line three.
I must admit this quatrain is a puzzle.
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