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 

• Leto and Niobe by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• It’s no use by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• It was you, Atthis, who said by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• It is the Muses by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
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• I took my lyre and said by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• I have no complaint by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Hymn To Aphrodite by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Hesperus The Bringer by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• He is more than a hero by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• He is more than a hero by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Grace by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Like the gods. . . by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• To A Girl In A Garden by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Evening by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Drapple-thorned Aphrodite, by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Dica by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Cyprian, in my dream by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Claïs by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Blame Aphrodite by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ

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