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:
- Hey, the Dusty Miller (Song) by Robert Burns
- Владимир Маяковский – Себе, любимому, посвящает эти строки автор
- Aeneid by Virgil
- Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Владимир Британишский – Отечественные записки 1840-х годов
- Robert Burns: The Brigs Of Ayr: Inscribed to John Ballantine, Esq., Ayr.
- Олег Чупров – Шаньги
- a walk in the forest by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Маяковский – Товарищ! Шахтер раздет… (РОСТА №603)
- Our Soul’s Gestation
- In The Stone I Rooted
- Robert Burns: Epigram On The Laird Of Laggan:
- Follower by Seamus Heaney
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Бивак
- Trebetherick poem – John Betjeman poems
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
- Николай Некрасов – Детство
- Николай Некрасов – Деревенские новости
- Николай Некрасов – Демону
- Николай Карамзин – Триолет Алете в тот день, как ей исполнилось 14 лет
- Николай Карамзин – Там всё велико, всё прелестно
- Николай Карамзин – Тацит
- Николай Карамзин – Странные люди
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи с поднесением выписок
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на слова, заданные мне Хлoeю: миг, картина и дверь
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на день рождения А. А. Плещеевой 14 октября
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи к портрету И.И. Дмитриева (Министр, поэт и друг)
- Николай Карамзин – Соловей, галки и вороны
- Николай Карамзин – Соломонова мудрость, или мысли, выбранные из Экклезиаста
- Николай Карамзин – Сильфида
- Николай Карамзин – Рогатому человеку
- Николай Карамзин – Раиса (Древняя баллада)
- Николай Карамзин – Прости
- Николай Карамзин – Пророчество на 1799 год, найденное в бумагах Нострадамуса
- Николай Карамзин – Приношение грациям
- Николай Карамзин – Посвящение к «Аглае»
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.