Ruba'i

{{further|Persian metres}}

The usual metre of a Persian ruba'i, which is used for all four lines of the above quatrain by Rumi, is, as follows:L. P. Elwell-Sutton (1986), [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aruz-the-metrical-system "ʿArūż,"] Encyclopaedia Iranica, II/6-7, pp. 670–679.

: – – u u – u – u – – u u –

In the above scheme, quantitatively, "–" represents a long syllable, and "u" a short one. As variations of this scheme, any sequence of – u, except the final syllable of each line, can be replaced by a single "overlong" syllable, such as gēkh, tīf, luṭf in the poem above, containing either a long vowel followed by a consonant other than "n", or a short vowel followed by two consonants. An overlong syllable, as mentioned, can freely be substituted for the final syllable of the line, as with bād above.

Another variation, as a poetic licence rule, is that occasionally a sequence of two short syllables (u u) can be replaced by a single long one (–).

A third variation is to use the same metre as above, but with the sixth and seventh syllables reversed:

: – – u u – – u u – – u u –

The verse form AABA as used in English verse is known as the Rubaiyat Quatrain due to its use by Edward FitzGerald in his famous 1859 translation, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Algernon Charles Swinburne, one of the first admirers of FitzGerald's translation of Khayyam's medieval Persian verses, was the first to imitate the stanza form, which subsequently became popular and was used widely, as in the case of Robert Frost's 1922 poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

{{Quote box

| title = Quatrain VII from the fourth edition of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat

| quote =

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring

Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way

To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing.{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/rubaiyat.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive | the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam}}

| fontsize = 85%

}}

FitzGerald's translation became so popular by the turn of the century that hundreds of American humorists wrote parodies using the form and, to varying degrees, the content of his stanzas, including The Rubaiyat of Ohow Dryyam, The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten, The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In extended sequences of ruba'i stanzas, the convention is sometimes extended so that the unrhymed line of the current stanza becomes the rhyme for the following stanza.{{cite book|last=Skelton|first=Robin|title=The Shapes of Our Singing: A Comprehensive Guide to Verse Forms and Metres from Around the World|year=2002|publisher=Eastern Washington University Press|location=Spokane, WA|isbn=0-910055-76-9|pages=106}} The structure can be made cyclical by linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza: ZZAZ.{{cite book|last=Turco|first=Lewis|title=The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics|year=2000|publisher=University Press of New England|location=Lebanon, NH|isbn=1-58465-022-2|pages=245}} These more stringent systems were not, however, used by FitzGerald in his Rubaiyat.

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news|url=http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/infotainment/25-Mar-2013/a-splendid-poetry-collection|title=A splendid poetry collection|author=Amjad Parvez|newspaper=Daily Times|date=25 March 2013|access-date=11 April 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140118015641/http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/infotainment/25-Mar-2013/a-splendid-poetry-collection|archive-date=18 January 2014}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqDALyQPI1g Tajik girls reciting ruba'i quatrains]

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