The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
XLVII explained
The quatrain reflects on the insignificance of individual human existence in the vast, enduring world, comparing our brief coming and departure to a pebble cast into the sea.
What happens
The quatrain reflects on the insignificance of individual human existence in the vast, enduring world, comparing our brief coming and departure to a pebble cast into the sea.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Themes in this chapter
- Mortality and Transience
The poem emphasizes the fleeting nature of life behind the 'Veil' and the long duration of the world after we are gone.
- Skepticism and Doubt
The imagery of the world heeding our coming and departure as little as the sea heeds a pebble-cast suggests a skeptical view of human significance.
Key passages
“When You and I behind the Veil are past, Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last, Which of our Coming and Departure heeds As the Sea’s self should heed a pebble-cast.”
After you and I have passed beyond the veil of death, the world will continue on for an immense time, paying no more attention to our arrival and departure than the sea would notice a single pebble thrown into it.
This paraphrase captures the theme of human insignificance and the indifference of the universe.
