ABSTRACT
James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) was a poet who died of TB after a very brief career as a diplomat in the Near East. He left two unpublished plays, Don Juan and Hassan, and the poem about the journey to Samarkand is from Hassan. It tells of a diverse caravan of men leaving Baghdad for ‘the cities of the Far North East, divine Bokhara and Happy Samarkand’ (p. 169). The travellers are pilgrims seeking a prophet, and poets, merchants, Jews, and they are facilitated by guides and camel drivers. Each group tells the listener why they are travelling, and their motives are essentially similar to those of academic researchers.
