Song Of The Peri

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.

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Poems in English 

• Number 1 by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
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• Nature’s song for the children by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Nasrudin’s donkey eats poetry by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mummy, mummy who invented school? by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mum and children in the street by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mr Anonymous, a life by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Moon poems by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Moon, I hear you are moving away by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• minding love by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• message from the sun by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• may each find the peace within by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• M for Man, Money and Moon by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• lovers in nature by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• love growing by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• love by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
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