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:
- Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn (Song) by Robert Burns
- Messalina poem – Alfred Austin
- The Hermit poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Fantasy poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Farewell by Rabindranath Tagore
- By Garpal Stream by Stanley Wilkin
- The World is with Me by Thomas Hood
- A Wife In London by Thomas Hardy
- Minoan Porcelain
- A Piece Of The Storm by Mark Strand
- You’re by Sylvia Plath
- Кондратий Рылеев – Гусь и змия
- Where’s the Poet? poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Заболоцкий – Подводный город
- The War Films by Sir Henry Newbolt
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
- Юлия Друнина – Сверстницам
- Юлия Друнина – Страна Юность
- Юлия Друнина – Старый Крым
- Юлия Друнина – Старая лента, обугленный лес
- Юлия Друнина – Стал холоден мой тёплый старый дом
- Юлия Друнина – Сочетание
- Юлия Друнина – Слалом
- Юлия Друнина – Шторм
- Юлия Друнина – Ржавчина
- Юлия Друнина – Русский вечер
- Юлия Жадовская – Заколдованное сердце
- Юлия Жадовская – Я все хочу расслушать
- Юлия Жадовская – Всё ты уносишь, нещадное время
- Юлия Жадовская – Возврат весны
- Юлия Жадовская – Лучший перл таится
- Юлия Жадовская – Говорят придет пора
- Юлия Жадовская – Да, я вижу
- Юлия Жадовская – Чем ярче шумный пир
- Юлия Жадовская – Ах, бабушкин сад
- Юнна Мориц – Зимнее
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.