A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
Beauty, the Gift of Gifts, I give to thee.
Pleasure and love shall spring around thy feet
As through the lake the lotuses arise
Pinkly transparent and divinely sweet.
I give thee eyes aglow like morning stars,
Delicate brows, a mist of sable tresses,
That all the journey of thy lie may be
Lit up by love and softened by caresses.
For those who once were proud and softly bred
Shall, kneeling, wait thee as thou passest by,
They who were pure shall stretch forth eager hands
Crying, “Thy pity, Lord, before we die!”
And one shall murmur, “If the sun at dawn
Shall open and caress a happy flower,
What blame to him, although the blossom fade
In the full splendour of his noontide power?”
And one, “If aloes close together grow
It well may chance a plant shall wounded be,
Pierced by the thorntips of another’s leaves,
Thus am I hurt unconsciously by thee.”
For some shall die and many more shall sin,
Suffering for thy sake till seven times seven,
Because of those most perfect lips of thine
Which held the power to make or mar their heaven.
And though thou givest back but cruelty,
Their love, persistent, shall not heed nor care,
All those whose ears are fed with blame of thee
Shall say, “It may be so, but he was fair.”
Ay, those who lost the whole of youth for thee,
Made early and for ever, shamed and sad,
Shall sigh, re-living some sweet memory,
“Ah, once it was his will to make me glad.”
Thy nights shall be as bright as summer days,
The sequence of thy sins shall seem as duty,
Since I have given thee, Oh, Gift of Gifts!–
The pale perfection of unrivalled beauty.

A few random poems:
- Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field. by Walt Whitman
- To The University Of Cambridge, In New-England by Phillis Wheatley
- Manhattan Streets I Saunter’d, Pondering. by Walt Whitman
- Вероника Тушнова – Ты любил, и я тебя любила
- To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh
- There Is No Breeze To Cool The Heat Of Love
- Анатолий Жигулин – Начало поэмы
- Immoral Laboratories
- If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin
- The Soundless Ocean by Tanmoy
- Salvage poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Эй, товарищ! Поищи дома (Главполитпросвет №95)
- In the Name of Eternal Love by Walter William Safar
- Robert Burns: My Lord A-Hunting:
- The Aloe
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- I Awake and Choose To Live by P.J.Reed
- I Am Me by Patrick Neo Mabiletsa
- I am Ireland by Patrick Pearse
- I Am In Pain For You by Patrick Neo Mabiletsa
- HEAL ME by WALID SABA
- Ghost Girl by P.J.Reed
- Full Moon by Walid Saba
- Expressive Moments by Pamela Griffiths
- Expectations by Pamela Griffiths
- Epic by Patrick Kavanagh
- Drowning. Not Waving by P.J.Reed
- Don’t Need Anything by Pat Mullan
- Dinner Date by P.J.Reed
- Detached Living by P.J.Reed
- Desire # 4 by Patricia Fargnoli
- Décembre austral by Patryck Froissart
- Death Fugue by Paul Celan
- Deaf Mute in the Pear Tree by P. K. Page
- Crystal by Paul Celan
- Corona by Paul Celan
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.