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:
- The Battle Of Salamis
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- William Allingham – William Allingham
- Out from Behind this Mask. by Walt Whitman
- Владимир Динец – Над степью весенней
- His Phoenix by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Birthday Ode For 31st December, 1787:
- Геннадий Айги – ДЕВОЧКА В ДЕТСТВЕ
- Dark spring by Yvor Winters
- Наум Коржавин – Наверно, я не так на свете жил
- An April Love poem – Alfred Austin
- Thrushes by Ted Hughes
- Шекспир – Сонет 50
- Written In Cananore
- Life and Love by Nithin Purple
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
- England! The Time Is Come When Thou Should’st Wean by William Wordsworth
- Emperors And Kings, How Oft Have Temples Rung by William Wordsworth
- Ellen Irwin Or The Braes Of Kirtle by William Wordsworth
- Elegiac Stanzas Suggested By A Picture Of Peele Castle by William Wordsworth
- Dion [See Plutarch] by William Wordsworth
- Crusaders by William Wordsworth
- Composed While The Author Was Engaged In Writing A Tract Occasioned By The Convention Of Cintra by William Wordsworth
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed on The Eve Of The Marriage Of A Friend In The Vale Of Grasmere by William Wordsworth
- Composed Near Calais, On The Road Leading To Ardres, August 7, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed In The Valley Near Dover, On The Day Of Landing by William Wordsworth
- Composed During A Storm by William Wordsworth
- Composed By The Side Of Grasmere Lake 1806 by William Wordsworth
- Composed By The Sea-Side, Near Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed At The Same Time And On The Same Occasion by William Wordsworth
- Composed After A Journey Across The Hambleton Hills, Yorkshire by William Wordsworth
- Characteristics Of A Child Three Years Old by William Wordsworth
- Character Of The Happy Warrior by William Wordsworth
- Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel. by William Wordsworth
- “Call Not The Royal Swede Unfortunate” by William Wordsworth
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.