During the New Year of 1943, Captain Edward V. Hayward had access to, and found inspiration and solace in,  some very beautiful poems, as his diary testifies.  He quotes excerpts from the poems of Omar Khayyám and Mary Elizabeth Cole.

Omar Khayyám wrote:

"Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire, To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

Omar Khayyám was born on 18 May 1048 AD in Neyshapur, Iran and died in 1131 AD, Neyshapur, Iran. He was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. He wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, and music. Zamakhshari the Qur'an scholar, referred to him as “the philosopher of the world”.

Mary Elizabeth Cole wrote:

'We were young, we were merry, we were very very wise, And the door stood open at our feast, When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes, And a man with his back to the East.
 
O, still grew the hearts that were beating so fast, The loudest voice was still.  The jest died away on our lips as thy passed, And the rays of July struck chill.
 
The cups of red wine turned pale on the board, The white bread black as soot. The hound forgot the hand of her lord, She fell down at his foot.
 
Low let me lie, where the dead dog lies, Ere I sit me down again at a feast, When there passes a woman with the West in her eyes, And a man with his back to the East.'