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 

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• This Day, O Soul. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• This Compost. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Think of the Soul. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Thick-Sprinkled Bunting. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• These, I, Singing in Spring. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• There was a Child went Forth. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• The Wound-Dresser by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• That Shadow, my Likeness. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• That Music Always Round Me. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Tests. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Tears. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Still, though the One I Sing. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• States! by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Starting from Paumanok. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Spontaneous Me. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Spirit whose Work is Done. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Spirit That Form’d This Scene. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Sparkles from The Wheel. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman

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