A special celebration will be taking place in a Suffolk town to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the death of a poet known as the 'Suffolk Bard'.

A special tribute poem to Woodbridge poet Edward FitzGerald is going to be published by researchers into the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on June 14, the date of Mr FitzGerald's death 140 years ago.

READ MORE: Famous son of Woodbridge celebrated

The Rubaiyat was the title the English writer gave to his 1859 translation of a series of quatrains (a four-line stanza or poem) attributed to Khayyam, known as the 'Astronomer-Poet of Persia'.

A 'FitzGerald Walk' has already taken place around the area of Bredfield, where Mr FitzGerald was born and Boulge, where he lived, while in September there will be a visual and musical 'FitzGerald Celebration' in Woodbridge.

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Mr FitzGerald attended King Edward Grammar School in Bury St Edmunds and also Trinity College in Cambridge, while he helped the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and poet Alfred Lord Tennyson develop their skills.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGeraldThe Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGerald (Image: Charles Mugleston)

He also wrote letters unceasingly and four volumes of these letters are now housed upstairs in Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich.

Outside of writing, he also enjoyed sailing and owned a yacht, while he is buried at St Michael's Church in Boulge, where many of his admirers leave roses at his grave.

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Actor Charles Mugleston, an admirer of Mr FitzGerald and member of the Omar Khayyam Theatre Company, described the poet as a 'shy genius' and advised people to read the Rubaiyat.

He said: "The biggest, brightest and best event of all would be for people to read the poem itself, remembering that it needs to be interpreted as Dante advises on four levels… Literal, Allegorical, Moral and Mystical.

"If people read it (and… there are five differing editions of it… each one containing something different and of great value, I think he saw it as a work in progress, as all perfectionists do) just literally then they will not understand it properly, even though it will be found quite charming for other reasons."