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:
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
- Us Two by AA Milne
- A March Minstrel poem – Alfred Austin
- Written In A Blank Leaf Of Macpherson’s Ossian by William Wordsworth
- Иван Демьянов – Одежкин домик
- Владимир Британишский – Ладожский канал
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- An Aquarium poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney
- Philosophy poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про правого инсайда
- Landowners by Sylvia Plath
- Олег Бундур – Под сосной
- The man with the blue eye by Neelam Shah
- Time’s Defence poem – Alfred Austin
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
- Love Sonnet X poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Love Sonnet LX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Love Sonnet LVIII poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Girl-Gladness poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Fortune poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Elegy On An Australian Schoolboy poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Books poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Sonnet Of Motherhood XLV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- Love Sonnet XXV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- Love Sonnet LIV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- You’re The Only One poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Victims poem – Yaseen Anwer poems | Poetry Monster
- The Senses of Art poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- The Details Are poem – Zhivka Baltadzhieva poems | Poetry Monster
- The 9th Inning poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Songs of Depression poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Someone left a pen… poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Some Singers And Their Traits poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Sin poem – Yao Ying poems | Poetry Monster
- Sabbath, My Love poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
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.