“The Thousand and One Nights”

1. “The Thousand and One Nights” Unit 7, Day 2

2. To Begin… • New seats! • Journal: Do you agree with the carpe diem (“seize the day” / YOLO) view of life? Explain your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. • Quiz: You may use your textbook on the quiz, but not neighbors!

3. Introduction Video • http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/the-thousand-and-one-nights/watch/

4. “The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor” • Sindbad, one of the heroes in The Thousand and One Nights, is a rich young man from Baghdad (now the capital of Iraq) who becomes a sea merchant after recklessly spending all of his wealth. • Sindbad’s marvelous adventures during the several voyages he makes to regain his fortune are the subject of this story cycle. • Most of the selection from the Sindbad tales is devoted to rising action. The conflict is sketched by the captain’s speech in the third paragraph. • After this speech, complication after complication arises. • The action reaches its climax in the last two paragraphs, when the men blind the giant and flee. • The resolution takes up only the last few lines of the story.

5. Rubaiyat • Omar Khayyam—familiar with the works of Greek philosophers, but also knowledgeable in the areas of science, including medicine and astronomy, and mathematics. • Khayyam is most well-known, however, for his four-line verses of poetry, called rubai. • Khayyam’s poetry was not discovered until well after his death and popularity was not gained until over 700 years after his death.

6. Rubaiyat • Rubaiyat—Persian word for four-line verse. • Quatrain—English word for four-line verse. • Standard form for Rubaiyat is that the first, second, and fourth line rhyme. The third line usually does not rhyme with the other three. • Because a rubai is so short and its rhyme scheme so restrictive, it often makes use of metaphor or imagery to express its meaning. • Standard approach to writing a rubai is to use the first three lines to introduce the topic and the final line to comment on it. Often the last line contains a surprising statement or an ironic twist.

7. Rubaiyat • 1—With what images does verse 1 begin? • 7—What point does the last line of verse 7 make about the ideas introduced in the first three lines? What metaphor makes the point memorable? • 12&13—Where does Khayyam find happiness, according to verses 12 & 13? • 17&19—How are the ideas in verses 17 & 19 similar? • 27&28—How do the last lines in verses 27 & 28 reveal the narrator’s tone, or attitude? What evokes these feelings?

8. 96—Many of the rubaiyat are set in a garden or in the countryside. In Persian literature, a pastoral setting is often a metaphor for life, and the four seasons, metaphors for the stages of human life: springtime for youth, summer for adulthood, autumn for age, winter for death. • How are the seasons and elements of the garden used as metaphors in verse 96?

9. Homework • 7.2 Worksheet