Context: Unlike most Victorian writers, FitzGerald does not moralize, and he does not extol duty and toil in his adaption of the Persian poem. He glorifies wine, which symbolizes love, sensual pleasure, revolt against restrictions, and life itself. Life is now here in all its glory: ". . . still a Ruby kindles in the Vine,/ And many a Garden by the Water blows." But life will soon be gone: "Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring/ Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling. . . . The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,/ The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one." The heroes of the past are dead, and the future is uncertain. Only the here-and-now matters: