Story By Lalla Ji The Priest

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.

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Poems in English 

• The Wind In Woone’s Feäce by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Wind At The Door by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Widow’s House by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The White Road Up Athirt The Hill by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Wheel Routs by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Welshnut Tree by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Weepen Leady by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Weather-Beaten Tree by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Water-Spring In The Leäne by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Water Crowvoot by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Waggon A-Stooded by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Vrost by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Vier-Zide by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Veairy Veet That I Do Meet by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Vaïces That Be Gone by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Two Churches by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Turnstile by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Turn O’ The Days by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Thorns In The Geäte by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Stwonen Bwoy Upon The Pillar by William Barnes by William Barnes

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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.

 

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