The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XLII


And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas-- the Grape!

This is the forty-second quatrain of the FitzGerald's Rubaiyat and continuing with the long line of those dealing with wine/vine or grape. And in the tavern, I was sitting and waiting for my glass of wine to come and behold!. Through the dusk,  I see an angel (shape) and carrying a jar on his shoulder, he asked me to taste it and it tasted to be wine!. In the darkness of the night in the tavern, the door unlocked and in the early morning light seeping through the door, slithering through that the door I saw an angel shape. The poet seems to be referring to the bartender as an angel shape (for the early morning sun behind the slightly open door is making his silhouette look like a shape of an angel as if basking in a divine light) carrying with him the vessel on his shoulder. And what does this Angel Shape bring for him? His treasured and beloved wine! who knows. May be the bartender is the Angel from God bringing with him in vessel of pure knowledge and understanding amidst of the new morning & new awakening..and I taste this and it is the heavenly wine..

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