The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr. — Key Ideas to Explore

The Fabricated Scholarly Frame

The introduction establishes a mock-editorial persona who treats the 'discovery' of Omar Khayyam Jr. with deadpan seriousness, comparing it to 'the disinterment of Ossian's forgotten songs.' Irwin mimics the language of academic discovery—'sudor et labor,' 'Erebus'—while inflating trivial details. The editor claims the younger Omar's quatrains 'have points of superiority over the first Omar,' a claim undercut by the absurd subject matter. This framing device creates a layered irony: the reader is meant to recognize the parody while enjoying the pretense of authenticity. The footnotes, labeled 'Hammam Notes,' continue this pretense by offering pseudo-erudite glosses, such as explaining that 'tobacchanalian' is a portmanteau word, a nod to Lewis Carroll.

Tobacco as a Comic Substitute

Irwin systematically replaces the wine, roses, and lovers of Fitzgerald's quatrains with cigars, pipes, and tobacco-related imagery. In Rubaiyat LXXXV, a 'Stogie of a bileful Pittsburg make' speaks, and a 'Panatela finely rolled' hopes for 'a high-born Mouth whose Teeth are filled with Gold.' The beloved becomes 'Zamperina,' whose 'pagan Nose empurples with the Cold.' This substitution is not merely cosmetic; it deflates the original's metaphysical longing into mundane consumerism. The quatrains retain the AABA rhyme scheme and the carpe diem theme, but the urgency now concerns smoking: 'I love you still for your Redeeming Vice / And shower Tobacco Leaves upon your Grave.' The humor lies in the incongruity of applying Omar's fatalism to cigar brands and ash trays.

Shifts in Pace and Voice

The quatrains vary in pace from languid philosophical musings to abrupt, punchy jokes. Early quatrains maintain a measured, reflective tone, but as the sequence progresses, the voice becomes more colloquial and self-deprecating. Rubaiyat XCVI, for instance, mimics the original's repentance motif: 'Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before / I swore, but Was I Smoking when I swore?' The line break after 'swore' creates a momentary pause that heightens the comic reveal. Later quatrains accelerate into farce, as when a fire breaks out in a cigar shop and the inmates cry, 'The Shop's afire and we are Uninsured!' The final quatrains return to a mock-elegiac mode, with the poet's 'tumid Ashes' and 'Muse asleep within an empty Box.' This rhythmic variation keeps the parody fresh, preventing the joke from wearing thin.

Readers familiar with Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat will find Irwin's parody most rewarding, as the humor depends on recognizing the original's structure and themes. The mock-footnotes and introduction reward attention to detail, while the quatrains can be enjoyed as standalone comic verse. Approach the work as a literary jeu d'esprit rather than a sustained narrative; its pleasures lie in the cleverness of the substitution and the consistency of the satirical voice.

I’ve often thought that parody is a sort of loving wink across the decades. Irwin’s tobacco-stained quatrains share that same patient wonder I find in Watchers of the Sky — Text and Context, where the heavens themselves seem to wink back. Both remind me of smoke and starlight, drifting home.