Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
This is the twenty-fifth quatrain of the Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat. The first two lines say that the holy saints and sages, the learned men of our age who talk so learnedly as if to know all the secret of this world and the world thereafter. These wise discussions are like the foolish ramblings of the false prophets (who claims to foresee the future) who are abound here and there and who are believed by none. These words of saints and sages will be long lost and they will be consumed by the dust (death). The poet says even the learned among us, the pious saints and the wise sages who know so much of the two words in fact know nothing of either. Whatever they knew, whatever they said will be lost and their words will be scattered.
