Summary

The seventy-fifth quatrain contains as astronomical references that suggest the narrator has had his fate written in the stars, so to speak. The idea of human beings as assemblages of dust, who in death return to dust, is forwarded again in grandiose manner. In the seventy-sixth quatrain the speaker states that wine has given him especial acuity and philosophical prowess. It has transformed the “base metal” of his being into a vessel for seeking truth that is inaccessible to the Sufi dervishes who are more pompous in their claims to mystical wisdom than the mere wine enthusiast (76).

Quatrain seventy-seven suggests that enlightenment is more liable to be encountered in a tavern than in a temple, and it is more valuable when found in the former location. The seventy-eight quatrain marks the absurdity of imagining that human consciousness, which somehow arose out of the...