Song Of The Colours By Taj Mahomed

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

_Rose-colour_

Rose Pink am I, the colour gleams and glows

In many a flower; her lips, those tender doors

By which, in time of love, love’s essence flows

From him to her, are dyed in delicate Rose.

Mine is the earliest Ruby light that pours

Out of the East, when day’s white gates unclose.

On downy peach, and maiden’s downier cheek

I, in a flush of radiant bloom, alight,

Clinging, at sunset, to the shimmering peak

I veil its snow in floods of Roseate light.

_Azure_

Mine is the heavenly hue of Azure skies,

Where the white clouds lie soft as seraphs’ wings,

Mine the sweet, shadowed light in innocent eyes,

Whose lovely looks light only on lovely things.

Mine the Blue Distance, delicate and clear,

Mine the Blue Glory of the morning sea,

All that the soul so longs for, finds not here,

Fond eyes deceive themselves, and find in me.

_Scarlet_

Hail! to the Royal Red of living Blood,

Let loose by steel in spirit-freeing flood,

Forced from faint forms, by toil or torture torn

Staining the patient gates of life new born.

Colour of War and Rage, of Pomp and Show,

Banners that flash, red flags that flaunt and glow,

Colour of Carnage, Glory, also Shame,

Raiment of women women may not name.

I hide in mines, where unborn Rubies dwell,

Flicker and flare in fitful fire in Hell,

The outpressed life-blood of the grape is mine,

Hail! to the Royal Purple Red of Wine.

Strong am I, over strong, to eyes that tire,

In the hot hue of Rapine, Riot, Flame.

Death and Despair are black, War and Desire,

The two red cards in Life’s unequal game.

_Green_

I am the Life of Forests, and Wandering Streams,

Green as the feathery reeds the Florican love,

Young as a maiden, who of her marriage dreams,

Still sweetly inexperienced in ways of Love.

Colour of Youth and Hope, some waves are mine,

Some emerald reaches of the evening sky.

See, in the Spring, my sweet green Promise shine,

Never to be fulfilled, of by and by.

Never to be fulfilled; leaves bud, and ever

Something is wanting, something falls behind;

The flowered Solstice comes indeed, but never

That light and lovely summer men divined.

_Violet_

I were the colour of Things, (if hue they had)

That are hard to name.

Of curious, twisted thoughts that men call “mad”

Or oftener “shame.”

Of that delicate vice, that is hardly vice,

So reticent, rare,

Ethereal, as the scent of buds and spice,

In this Eastern air.

On palm-fringed shores I colour the Cowrie shell,

With its edges curled;

And, deep in Datura poison buds, I dwell

In a perfumed world.

My lilac tinges the edge of the evening sky

Where the sunset clings.

My purple lends an Imperial Majesty

To the robes of kings.

_Yellow_

Gold am I, and for me, ever men curse and pray,

Selling their souls and each other, by night and day.

A sordid colour, and yet, I make some things fair,

Dying sunsets, fields of corn, and a maiden’s hair.

Thus they discoursed in the daytime,–Violet, Yellow, and Blue,

Emerald, Scarlet, and Rose-colour, the pink and perfect hue.

Thus they spoke in the sunshine, when their beauty was manifest,

Till the Night came, and the Silence, and gave them an equal rest.

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Poems in English 

• Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 114: Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 113: Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 112: Your love and pity doth th’ impression fill by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 111: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 110: Alas, ’tis true, I have gone here and there by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 10: For shame, deny that thou bear’st love to any by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 109: O, never say that I was false of heart by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 108: What’s in the brain that ink may character by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 106: When in the chronicle of wasted time by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 102: My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet LIV by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Silvia by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sigh No More by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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