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 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 129: Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• The Eolian Harp by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Fledermaus
• Sonnet 32: If thou survive my well-contented day by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 28: How can I then return in happy plight by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 27: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 26: Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 25: Let those who are in favour with their stars by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 24: Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 23: As an unperfect actor on the stage by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 22: My glass shall not persuade me I am old by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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