o 
 
 o 
 
 RVBAIYAT 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Gl FT OF 
 
Rubaiyat of Cheerfulness 
 
il 
 
 1Lt*4m 
 
 RUBAIYAT 
 OF CHEER 
 FULNESS 
 
 BY LUKE NORTH, ON 
 THE GOLDEN PRESS 
 LOS ANGELES 
 CALIFORNIA : NINETEEN 
 HUNDRED SEVEN 
 
COPYRIGHT 1907 
 by G. D. GRIFFES 
 
 
J *- 
 
 / 
 
 (UNIVERSITY 
 
 THESE quatrains are offered less as poetry 
 than as truth my vision of truth. It may 
 not be important for the world to have my 
 vision, yet being by trade a pensmith, I set forth 
 my wares with scant modesty, assured that while 
 the world may neglect some things it would be the 
 wiser for heeding, it is well able to protect itself 
 from that which it does not need, or like. The 
 quatrain habit is easier to acquire than to abandon, 
 & I am not without the consciousness that possi- 
 bly the world's debt of gratitude to me shall begin 
 only when I am strong to relinquish. Verily could 
 I wish for more grace of form in these verses, & 
 yet were I capable of so enriching them, I should 
 be unwilling to sacrifice the directness & clarity 
 with which I have labored to endow them. As to 
 the truth of them (my truth) I am the best judge, 
 & because I know them to contain (my) truth do 
 I offer them with confidence. They do not present 
 all (my) truth barely the basis of it. Truth, I 
 think, is two things: The Law that regulates the 
 multiplication table, & the deepest, biggest, widest 
 view of that Law as we contact it at every instant 
 of life, that each human being can secure for him- 
 self. In the latter, personal, sense truth is whatever 
 best explains life & enables one to relate himself 
 to the Whole. Gloom restricts the view, Cheerful- 
 ness widens it, therefore these RUBAIYAT OF 
 
 CHEERFULNESS 
 
 173692 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 Why should the Way of Things be dark and sad: 
 Why choose the Stygian paths and Gloom for God- 
 While Nature's ev'ry mood reveals that man 
 Alone hath lost the art of being glad? 
 
 2 
 
 I cannot think that man is but the sport 
 Of elements that wantonly distort 
 
 His fitful efforts to be great and wise 
 Or God in human misery finds sport! 
 
 3 
 
 It is not true that throes of human pain 
 Make mirthful holidays for gods that reign 
 
 O'er elements that now disport with man, 
 As man plays fast and loose with Law, for gain. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 4 
 
 Filosofies are wove of human skill, 
 And in the weaving each his own sweet will 
 May please. No static right hath any ism 
 The Joy of Life by subtleties to kill. 
 
 5 
 
 It is the fruitage of an addled brain, 
 That view of life which brings the tears and pain, 
 Which seeing but the shape of things, mistakes 
 The Wine Cup for the Cheer it doth contain. 
 
 6 
 
 Come, weave your web of life when cup is full, 
 While hope runs high and heart is merciful 
 
 Toward all that live: nor wait satiety's 
 Brown taste and night's dark shadows fanciful. 
 
 [7] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 7 
 
 Let Heart Light delve into the mystery deep, 
 And Reason wait on Love, her faith to keep: 
 
 Her place to segregate delusion from 
 The truth: not hers behind the veil to peep. 
 
 8 
 
 The God I worship needs no priest profound 
 His laws for mortal welfare to expound, 
 
 But writes them large on all his handiwork 
 'T is human subtleties that men confound. 
 
 Come read your Book of Life in Nature's laws, 
 And seek her meaning of whatever clause 
 
 Seems made for grief and leads to unbelief 
 That God is Love and Love the primal Cause. 
 
 [83 
 
RVBAJYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 10 
 
 Eternal mystery! that question "Why?" 
 The human heart in Joy may yet descry: 
 The lover's ecstacy, the artist's mood, 
 At very portals of the ALL may lie! 
 
 1 1 
 
 If God is true and Nature's ways are right, 
 No bar there is on range of human sight, 
 
 No bar save that which human indolence 
 Hath forg'd. 'T is creed and fear shut out the Light. 
 
 12 
 
 And tho the ultimate I cannot know, 
 
 If I can see the Law by which men grow, 
 
 By which the tares to wheat and tears to peace 
 Are turn'd; if I can see the steps and know 
 
RVBAIYAT OF 
 
 That harmony is ever Nature's way, 
 
 That sorrow's veil but hides a brighter day; 
 
 If I can reason out the heart's desire 
 And correlate the thorns that line the way; 
 
 H 
 
 If I can glimpse the Gen'ral Plan, and see 
 How Love and Justice can omniscient be; 
 How Mercy lurks in ev'ry sin and pain 
 And wisdom comes thru grief and agony; 
 
 15 
 
 If I can see the Law's fruition HERE! 
 (My trust is scant on doubtful, distant sphere) 
 
 Why then for me the way of life is not 
 So drear; the path of Cheerfulness is clear. 
 
 [10] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 16 
 
 'T is Western sun that blinds the Inner Sight 
 And shades the poetry of life with night 
 
 Of Science and sensation's narrow view. 
 Look to the East, O men of hope, for Light ! 
 
 i? 
 
 Take from the East its light on Nature's Way. 
 Throw out its weeds of creed and sad array 
 
 Of Oriental myth and fantasy. 
 But light comes from the East, I say. 
 
 18 
 
 Thus East and West agree: The Whole unfolds; 
 Brahma breathes out; the universe unrolls 
 
 Its scroll of evolutionary law, 
 And Mind begets whatever Life beholds. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 '9 
 But Western law is cruel, blind, and cold, 
 
 Its man a wanton toy, a plastic mold 
 
 Of clay shap'd by some ruthless Potter's hand 
 That shook forbidding Soul Its life unfold. 
 
 20 
 
 In Eastern Law the God of Love I find, 
 Compassionate to sin of humankind; 
 
 And pointing how and where adjustment comes 
 And never fails! ALL-SEEING Law not blind! 
 
 In cyclic law of growth and change of form, 
 To which mankind, the stars, and tides conform, 
 
 The reason of the Way of Things you'll find 
 How Nature doth her miracles perform. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 22 
 
 Give time and depth and scope to human life, 
 Nor dwarf its Days to three-score years of strife 
 
 On this grim battle-field with anger, hate 
 And passion's blinding mists, alas, so rife! 
 
 23 
 
 Why all its agonies, its pains, and tears, 
 Its seeds of effort and its with'ring years 
 
 On lessons but half learn'd and work but hah 
 Perform'd if death translates to other spheres? 
 
 24 
 
 All nature writes the answer bold and clear 
 The theatre of human life is HERE! 
 
 Death's but a Sleep between the Days of Life: 
 Man reaps where he hath sown the harvest's here! 
 
 [13] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 25 
 
 Where ripens wheat that 's sown on fallow soil ? 
 Do demon gods conspire to cheat men's toil 
 
 To move the harvest field o'er Night bring wrack 
 And ruin to all the human sweat and moil? 
 
 26 
 
 Where bursts the acorn thru its horny pod, 
 On distant Mars, or in the forest sod 
 
 Of planet where it fell ? How reason ye, 
 That man allegiance bears to foreign God ? 
 
 27 
 
 The Rose thou mournest when its petals fall 
 Ensouls the bud that bursts at Nature's call : 
 
 And in the glory of the new the Sap 
 And Essence of the old our eyes enthrall ! 
 
 [H] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 28 
 
 'T is but the form that dies and not the Soul : 
 The Essence of the Rose pervades the Whole. 
 
 The Jar is broken, but the Wine flows on ! 
 Let not the heart's best love rest on the Bowl. 
 
 29 
 
 And all this loveliness shall reappear: 
 The selfsame Roses of the yesteryear, 
 
 With vesture new and perfume fresh from Sleep 
 And Rest not on some other sphere, but here! 
 
 3 
 For man on earth is not a Transient Guest ! 
 
 Nor brief, nor easy to attain, his quest 
 
 Of that lost Grail of Human Brotherhood, 
 Which once regained brings man the Alkahest. 
 
 ( 
 
 N^u 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 3* 
 Nor all your longings for another sphere 
 
 Shall set aside the Law that chains you here, 
 
 Till men shall make of earth a paradise, 
 And win the right to win another sphere. 
 
 On Golden Strands of Human Brotherhood 
 Shall man mount upward to a higher good 
 
 To other worlds and shapes unknown. Till then 
 Man's place is here; his task the Common Good. 
 
 33 
 
 'T is but the outer sheath of man that dies 
 As lovers' vows expire and summer flies. 
 
 What hell-born instinct prompts the selfish wish 
 The permanence of form to realize? 
 
 [16] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 34 
 
 Or finds in Nature's gentle law of change 
 Inherent gloom? How then the world arrange 
 Or build the flower of gold, or glass, or stone? 
 For basalt blocks the human flesh exchange? 
 
 35 
 Stones perish not, nor call for shallow tear 
 
 Dropt in the wine cup or the foaming beer. 
 
 Save tears for real woes, and bless the Law 
 That brings the Permanent new garb each year. 
 
 36 
 
 Unchanging form would make of earth a hell 
 And beauty's fairest shapes would yearn to sell 
 
 Their hopes of Paradise for change of garb 
 If buttercups were cast of hardened shell. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 37 
 
 O, ye of little faith yet faith too much! 
 Who lean on man-made creed as on a crutch, 
 
 And fail to see in Nature's ev'ry way, 
 Of Love and Justice the Supernal touch! 
 
 38 
 
 O, ye of little faith yet faith too great! 
 Who would the law of life and death translate; 
 
 Yet fail to read "between the lines," nor let 
 The Inner Glow the scroll illuminate ! 
 
 39 
 O, ye who would set bar on human sight! 
 
 And circumscribe man's range of Cosmic Light 
 
 Within the narrow arc of sev'nty years, 
 And with the grave his strife and hope requite ! 
 
 [i 8] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 40 
 
 O, ye who fix your hearts on form and flesh, 
 Or with false lights of wealth the soul enmesh ; 
 And lacking view of things beyond the range 
 Of sense, lack Fount that floweth ever fresh ! 
 
 And ye who say that Sense alone can know, 
 And wisdom only from the Outer grow ! 
 
 What turgid Wine flows in your Cup of Life 
 To hide the sparkle of the Flood below ? 
 
 42 
 
 To you, in thoughtful hour, the world must seem 
 A hideous nightmare, a hellish dream, 
 
 Pierc'd here and there by rays of flitting light 
 That but confuse the whole infernal scheme. 
 
 ['9] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 43 
 
 If wrongs triumph, if love and hope go down; 
 If God's hand shook in shaping this poor clown; 
 
 If he 's created prince, and I a plod 
 Then God's a cheat: let wine the trouble drown! 
 
 44 
 The world, 't is true, seems cruel and unjust, 
 
 For often Virtue dies and prospers Lust! 
 
 And Faith alone, for me, will not suffice: 
 I cannot take so big a scheme on trust. 
 
 45 
 I must, I shall demand the reason why, 
 
 When woes fall heaviest on you and I, 
 
 And all the world seems framed for our torment! 
 Prate not to me of Faith and Trust on High. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 46 
 
 What then, is there but creedal faith for man, 
 Or gloom of cruel Chance in Nature's plan ? 
 
 But reason's cold and pessimistic doubt, 
 Or Christian version of the heathen Pan? 
 
 47 
 
 Is there no bright and sane and cheering Way ? 
 No universal Key by which men may 
 
 Find Harmony in human destiny? 
 No sign of Plan Divine in Nature's Way? 
 
 48 
 
 Behold a glory at the door of life 
 Awaits to banish doubt, and gloom, and strife! 
 
 Dame Reason's found in Cheerfulness a spouse, 
 And Commonsense has taken Joy to wife. 
 
 [21] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 49 
 The head and heart of man again shall wed ; 
 
 The Intellect by human Love be led, 
 
 To banish in the joy of Nature's way, 
 The creedal night and gloom by science fed. 
 
 50 
 And from this marriage of the head and heart, 
 
 A fairer Hope is born and lo! the art 
 
 Of being Glad and True hath firmer base 
 Than faith alone or science doth impart. 
 
 The Heart Light glows upon the Soul of Things, 
 And hidden laws to mortal ken it brings, 
 
 Revealing 'neath the garb of flesh and form, 
 Of Nature's Causal Force the secret springs. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 52 
 There 's not a law on earth of God for man, 
 
 But mortal eye and human heart may scan, 
 
 If but the outer shell of life be pierc'd 
 And Love with Reason bare the Inner Plan. 
 
 53 
 
 Thus ev'ry hidden fa& and circumstance 
 That woe of man or happiness enhance, 
 
 Expression finds in outward mold of form 
 The Seen and Unseen cast in consonance ! 
 
 54 
 And as the small but replicas the great, 
 
 So gross and psychic planes associate 
 
 And blend : from one the other can be known 
 Thus many a Riddle shall man translate. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 55 
 
 When heart and mind shall soar beyond the sense, 
 And Reason wait on Soul's omnipotence 
 
 To reach the bottom of the well of Truth, 
 And pour on life its flood's beneficence. 
 
 56 
 
 Now darkness broods and all is Unity, 
 And Form is lost in Night's identity. 
 
 A Breath, a Word, a ripple on the Wave 
 Of Time and Light brings forth Duality! 
 
 57 
 
 From cosmic Night and Light comes Trinity 
 Religion's everlasting mystery: 
 
 That two from One & all from None come forth: 
 Primordial law of Solidarity! 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 58 
 
 A trailing star into the seeming void 
 Is dropt the ovum of an asteroid. 
 
 A "wanderer" conceived, a world begot! 
 In cosmic wilderness of Form devoid. 
 
 59 
 Thus groups of worlds from out the starry light, 
 
 And souls of men in glory all bedight, 
 
 Come trooping down from out the Milky Way 
 Come to their Days of Life, from Cosmic Night. 
 
 60 
 
 From Time's dark cavern of tranquility, 
 All down the path of Life's activity, 
 
 Come worlds and men to conquer space and fate 
 And reach the heart of true Fraternity ! 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 61 
 
 Caught on the Wheel of life's necessity 
 A Ray of God (of All Humanity) 
 
 I '11 murmur not that I, a spark of It, 
 Shall fail to read divine Totality. 
 
 62 
 
 Yet this I know, but for myself alone 
 (Let each of Truth's array proclaim his own), 
 
 That man of earth is Lord and God supreme ! 
 Here He creates, and reaps as He hath sown. 
 
 I scan the earth, the sea, and starry space, 
 And nowhere find Volition's faintest trace. 
 
 All palpitate by fixt and certain Law : 
 Uncertainty 's in but the Human race. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 64 
 
 The will to Do and Be in man I find : 
 Unfailing sign of the Creative Mind ! 
 
 Here consciousness has reacht the Godlike stage, 
 And Nature bows but to the human kind. 
 
 65 
 
 And in the Scheme of Things this mystery 
 Profound I see: that man's high destiny 
 
 It is to consciously produce on earth 
 The tie of Human Solidarity. 
 
 66 
 
 For that which Is must come to vision's plane ; 
 The Heart of Truth be sponsored by the brain. 
 
 By choice shall man again enacl: on earth 
 The Cosmic Harmonies that ever reign. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 67 
 
 I cannot see the Cause its trail defied, 
 Nor trace each thought and acl: to its effecl:. 
 
 But Nature's stanch and true, I know, and Law 
 Unfailingly each detail doth perfect. 
 
 68 
 
 There is no "iron hand of fate" on me, 
 No bond but human solidarity ! 
 
 And tho I pay my share for man's false steps, 
 I pay no more than I alone decree. 
 
 Fruition is the name of human Fate : 
 No super-being doth Predestinate. 
 
 Each sows the seed that time for him shall reap; 
 Each instant doth each soul its life create! 
 
RVBA1YAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 70 
 
 Who look behind the veil of life shall see 
 That man himself carves out his destiny; 
 
 That fate is but the reaping of the sown, 
 And man alone e'er writes his own decree. 
 
 LAW limits but to rule of Harmony 
 That ev'ry Cause its full Effect shall see. 
 
 And in the reaping each his pleasure takes 
 The Cup he drains in gloom, or Cheerfully. 
 
 72 
 
 If then the fleeting hour of Now and Here 
 Eternal record of each hope and fear 
 
 And thought and act mark on the warp of Time, 
 Futurity is mine! I'll drop no tear. 
 
 09] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 73 
 
 LAW binds all things to Rationality: 
 No other limit on man's will I see 
 
 That 2 plus 2 are 4 and never more. 
 Why wail at this Inflexibility? 
 
 74 
 
 "The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, 
 Moves on:" but why should man of Godlike wit 
 And all Futurity at his command, 
 
 Seek to evade or lose a word of it? 
 
 
 75 
 
 And this I seem to see, that man and men 
 Achieve by using Law! All power then, 
 
 Is theirs who wisely use, nor waste in vain 
 The Cosmic force that lies in human ken. 
 
 [30] 
 
RVBA1YAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 76 
 
 Each thought and a&, tho "good" or "ill" they be, 
 Sure guiding stars for all eternity ! 
 
 O, ye who sail life's sea sans chart or map, 
 Turn to the scroll : thy compass it will be. 
 
 77 
 
 If Fate is but the fruitage of the sown, 
 And ev'ry hope and deed bring forth their own, 
 
 Why then it rests with me, not to undo 
 The Past, but carve the New with me alone! 
 
 78 
 
 Who mourns the past or would the scroll unwrit, 
 Hath yet to learn that human growth is knit 
 
 On woof and warp of all experience. 
 All colors, too, must enter into it. 
 
 [3'] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 79 
 If woven in the fabric of a life, 
 
 No move is false, nor failure loss; nor strife, 
 Nor grief, nor sin, can mar the perfect plan 
 And pattern of a striving human life. 
 
 80 
 
 Like beads upon a Thread men's lives are cast, 
 Each Day of Life a bead. The first and last 
 
 Are strung the same, and all the beads on all 
 The Threads will look alike at last when mass'd. 
 
 81 
 
 Some wear a golden bead this Day of Life, 
 And some the ruddy hues of war and strife, 
 
 Whilst many dull and somber beads give tone 
 Of doubt and grief in modern life so rife. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 82 
 
 Thus he the Beggar now and I the Sheik: 
 TOMORROW he the Sultan, whilst I seek 
 The mystery of life in devious paths 
 And learn upon the Thread my heart to keep. 
 
 IS 
 
 The bead I wear I '11 furbish for myself, 
 
 Nor seek to garnish it with stolen pelf. 
 
 The bead I wear transparent I will make, 
 And let the Thread shine thru reveal my Self. 
 
 84 
 
 O, beads and beads of lives and lives untold! 
 What wisdom for us all your orbits hold, 
 
 When human hearts and minds are fixt upon 
 The Thread, and read the secrets that ye hold! 
 
 [33] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 85 
 Ah, many chipt and broken beads I see! 
 
 Distorted lives, by man's uncharity; 
 
 Cheap tawdry beads and beads of muddy glass, 
 Strung on the Thread of Life by man's decree. 
 
 86 
 
 Blind laws and customs of the rule of greed, 
 Still wrecking human life and planting seed 
 
 That only thankless toil and weariness 
 Can grow for millions doomed by man to need ! 
 
 87 
 
 Blind laws that heap on some what none create, 
 And give the few what Nature doth donate 
 
 The earth and treasures of the mines, nor man 
 His industry nor genius can create. 
 
 [34] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 88 
 
 Blind laws by man himself alone decreed: 
 Stale customs that on slavery still feed, 
 
 Defying Cosmic Law and spoiling life 
 To foster selfishness and private greed! 
 
 Blind laws that parcel to the "lucky" few 
 Those values that from common toil accrue! 
 
 Dire laws of greed and graft that take from All 
 And lavish where no work or worth make due! 
 
 90 
 
 Laws reeking with the lust of wolfish pack, 
 That ev'ry attribute of Justice lack, 
 
 That nourish vice and craft and weigh upon 
 The weak like senescence on Sinbad's back. 
 
 [35] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEER FVLNESS 
 
 9 1 
 Blind and withering laws that soon must go, 
 
 As man his cruel childhood doth outgrow : 
 
 Cain's code of greed to Get and Have and Hold 
 That which the strongest must 'erlong let go! 
 
 92 
 
 And hearts of men bow'd low with years of gain, 
 With only gold for all their moil and pain, 
 
 Go to their Longer Sleep with halting step 
 / will not say their Day of Life was vain. 
 
 93 
 And hearts of men are sore of strife for gain. 
 
 It matters not tho all their toil be vain ; 
 
 The years grow wearisome for all who fix 
 Their hearts upon the shining golden grain. 
 
 [36] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 94 
 
 But life expands with Giving, and years crown 
 Usefulness with peace; e'en funeral gown 
 
 Hath pockets that will carry golden deeds 
 From life to life: for Worth age wears no frown. 
 
 95 
 When on the altar of the Common Good 
 
 Men lay their hope of Gain from laws withstood 
 
 For private ends and mercenary greeds, 
 Then dawns the reign of Social Brotherhood. 
 
 When All have equal Opportunity 
 To work and reap: there is no charity 
 
 So great! When men shall hold their mother Earth 
 Intact, in trust for all humanity! 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 97 
 
 Full long Dame Reason's scorned the Human Heart 
 And man has lived on maxim's of the mart. 
 
 The Key that will unlock all Doors for him 
 Lies in the marriage of the Head and Heart. 
 
 Not all the Grape that flows from gold to red 
 A light on human destiny e'er shed. 
 
 'T is Wine of Life mixt with the Heart's best blood, 
 By which the wandering feet of men are led. 
 
 99 
 
 And tho the "Grape with logic absolute" 
 Confute the creed and ism, man's attribute 
 
 Of sympathy and hunger for the Heights, 
 Unfed remain for all the wine of fruit. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 100 
 
 For Man is not the Jar that drinks red wine, 
 Nor flesh that presses lips incarnadine. 
 
 Give Youth its mede of effervescing flood, 
 But Men crave stronger Drink than fruit of vine. 
 
 101 
 
 'T is true that never "blows the Rose so red" 
 As where Truth's pioneers have lived and bled. 
 
 On Calvary is human progress fixt, 
 And crown of thorns press on the toiler's head. 
 
 IO2 
 
 MEN do not mourn that Thorns with Roses grow, 
 Nor for the chance of prick or scratch forgo 
 
 The fragrance and the beauty of its bloom. 
 No blossom as the Rose doth lure men so. 
 
 [39] 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 103 
 
 MEN bless the Rose for growing on the Thorn, 
 And hope to see its lovely flow'r adorn 
 
 Each Thorn that grows on human life's highway, 
 Each troubled hour by Roses overborne. 
 
 104 
 
 " But Roses come and go ! " Ah, that 's the lie 
 Which robs life of its Joy that Roses die 
 
 And leave the heart forlorne. J T is only Form 
 That comes and goes the Rose to vivify! 
 
 105 
 
 Crush not the Rose in heedlessness or lust : 
 Bruis'd Roses wither soon, and turn to dust. 
 It is the Rose within the Rose that brings 
 Perfume to life O, pluck it, if you must! 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 1 06 
 
 But having pluckt your Rose or cast the Tang 
 Into your Cup of Life, curse not the Fang, 
 
 Nor whimper as you drain the Karmic Brew : 
 Its Bitterness is lost in Paean sang. 
 
 107 
 
 Half the gloom of life lies in the Quaffing; 
 CUP was never brew'd with all Pang lacking. 
 
 Groans ease no pain and frowns resolve no doubt: 
 Stand, and drink your Cup with eyes a-laughing. 
 
 1 08 
 
 So many Roses on the Way of Life! 
 And yet so few! and yet the world so rife 
 
 With war and gain and greed that Roses die 
 Unseen and crusht beneath the human strife. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 109 
 
 The Rose that buds and blows in open air 
 So willingly it grows, so free and fair! 
 
 Its fragrance and its beauty blessing all 
 Who take and leave it! growing everywhere! 
 
 I 10 
 
 Roses pluckt and crusht with lust of owning 
 Lust of hoarding, hiding, and providing 
 Charnel houses for the dust of empty 
 Shells! mad lust that immolates the living. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 They say that This or That man cannot know, 
 That only vintage of the fruits that grow 
 
 In soil can wisdom bring because on Form 
 Alone man 's lookt, two thousand years or so. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 I 12 
 
 With telescope in vain man has peer'd out, 
 Nor microscope has helpt resolve his doubt. 
 He turns at last to look within Himself, 
 And there finds wisdom not extant without. 
 
 Thus looking In this FACT he shall perceive, 
 That creeds and systems all confuse, deceive; 
 
 That Truth is like a Diamond in the sky, 
 And from its rays each Soul its hope MUST weave. 
 
 114 
 
 Man can delay, but not avoid this Must: 
 In vain, in vain, he lean and trust: 
 
 Each Soul finds joy and peace within himself, 
 For Time is long and Law All things adjust. 
 
RVBAIYAT OF CHEERFVLNESS 
 
 US 
 
 One ray I catch from flashing Stone of Fate 
 That Hand-in-Hand shall men storm Heaven's Gate; 
 
 That none shall in the nether world be cast, 
 And none shall early be, and none Too Late. 
 
 116 
 
 That each and all shall share whatever pass, 
 As toward the Pearly Gates they move en masse-, 
 
 That every Soul a Conscious God shall be, 
 And that, at last, you'll find no "Empty Glass"! 
 
SO HKRK KNDKTH \ht.RUBAITAr OF 
 CHEERFULNESS, being a book of verses that 
 body forth Some Reasons why men, & eke women, 
 who, tho lacking faith in creed & ism, yet shall find 
 Love in Nature, and finding shall not turn faces to 
 the wall & curse God, nor weep "this sorry Scheme 
 of Things entire," but keep their sweetness & their 
 reason and be Cheerful most all the time. 
 ^Set in Caslon types and five hundred copies 
 printed & bound at the shop of the GOLDEN PRESS 
 which is in the fair southland city of Los Angeles 
 and the Golden State of California in the year 
 of the Christian Era nineteen hundred and seven 
 in the month of November. 
 
 UNIVERSITY J 
 
 .... 
 
YC 14459