A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
He loved the Plant with a keen delight,
A passionate fervour, strange to see,
Tended it ardently, day and night,
Yet never a flower lit up the tree.
The leaves were succulent, thick, and green,
And, sessile, out of the snakelike stem
Rose spine-like fingers, alert and keen,
To catch at aught that molested them.
But though they nurtured it day and night,
With love and labour, the child and he
Were never granted the longed-for sight
Of a flower crowning the twisted tree.
Until one evening a wayworn Priest
Stopped for the night in the Temple shade
And shared the fare of their simple feast
Under the vines and the jasmin laid.
He, later, wandering round the flowers
Paused awhile by the blossomless tree.
The man said, “May it be fault of ours,
That never its buds my eyes may see?
“Aslip it came from the further East
Many a sunlit summer ago.”
“It grows in our Jungles,” said the Priest,
“Men see it rarely; but this I know,
“The Jungle people worship it; say
They bury a child around its roots–
Bury it living:–the only way
To crimson glory of flowers and fruits.”
He spoke in whispers; his furtive glance
Probing the depths of the garden shade.
The man came closer, with eyes askance,
The child beside them shivered, afraid.
A cold wind drifted about the three,
Jarring the spines with a hungry sound,
The spines that grew on the snakelike tree
And guarded its roots beneath the ground.
. . . . . .
After the fall of the summer rain
The plant was glorious, redly gay,
Blood-red with blossom. Never again
Men saw the child in the Temple play.

A few random poems:
- Владимир Британишский – По Иртышу
- Repression of War Experience by Siegfried Sassoon
- Юрий Коринец – Не кажется ли вам
- Leaving and Leaving You by Sophie Hannah
- The Princess: A Medley: As thro’ the land poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
- Огюст Барбье – Котел
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- An Autumn Picture poem – Alfred Austin
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- Fields and Gardens by the River Qi by Wang Wei
- The Man Born to Farming by Wendell Berry
- Tall Claims by Satish Verma
- Sonnet 7: Lo, in the orient when the gracious light by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Гиляровский – Нива
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
- Olney Hymn 50: The Christian by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 5: Jehovah-Shalom: The Lord Send Peace by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 48: Joy And Peace In Believing by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 47: The Hidden Life by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 45: The Happy Change by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 43: Prayer For Patience by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 40: Peace After A Storm by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 4: Jehovah-Nissi: The Lord My Banner by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 39: The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 38: Looking Upwards In A Storm by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 36: Afflictions Sanctified By The Word by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 34: The Waiting Soul by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 33: Seeking The Beloved by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 32: The Shining Light by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 31: On The Death Of A Minister by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 30: The Light And Glory Of The Word by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 3: Jehovah-Rophi: I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 29: Exhortation To Prayer by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 28: Jesus Hasting To Suffer by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 27: Welcome To The Table by William Cowper
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.