Story Of Udaipore Told By Lalla Ji The Priest

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

“And when the Summer Heat is great,

And every hour intense,

The Moghra, with its subtle flowers,

Intoxicates the sense.”

The Coco palms stood tall and slim, against the golden-glow,

And all their grey and graceful plumes were waving to and fro.

She lay forgetful in the boat, and watched the dying Sun

Sink slowly lakewards, while the stars replaced him, one by one.

She saw the marble Temple walls long white reflections make,

The echoes of their silvery bells were blown across the lake.

The evening air was very sweet; from off the island bowers

Came scents of Moghra trees in bloom, and Oleander flowers.

“The Moghra flowers that smell so sweet

When love’s young fancies play;

The acrid Moghra flowers, still sweet

Though love be burnt away.”

The boat went drifting, ucontrolled, the rower rowed no more,

But deftly turned the slender prow towards the further shore.

The dying sunset touched with gold the Jasmin in his hair;

His eyes were darkly luminous: she looked and found him fair.

And so persuasively he spoke, she could not say him nay,

And when his young hands took her own, she smiled and let them stay.

And all the youth awake in him, all love of Love in her,

All scents of white and subtle flowers that filled the twilight air

Combined together with the night in kind conspiracy

To do Love service, while the boat went drifting onwards, free.

“The Moghra flowers, the Moghra flowers,

While Youth’s quick pulses play

They are so sweet, they still are sweet,

Though passion burns away.”

Low in the boat the lovers lay, and from his sable curls

The Jasmin flowers slipped away to rest among the girl’s.

Oh, silver lake and silver night and tender silver sky!

Where as the hours passed, the moon rose white and cold on high.

“The Moghra flowers, the Moghra flowers,

So dear to Youth at play;

The small and subtle Moghra flowers

That only last a day.”

Suddenly, frightened, she awoke, and waking vaguely saw

The boat had stranded in the sedge that fringed the further shore.

The breeze grown chilly, swayed the palms; she heard, still half awake,

A prowling jackal’s hungry cry blown faintly o’er the lake.

She shivered, but she turned to kiss his soft, remembered face,

Lit by the pallid light he lay, in Youth’s abandoned grace.

But as her lips met his she paused, in terror and dismay,

The white moon showed her by her side asleep a Leper lay.

“Ah, Moghra flowers, white Moghra flowers,

All love is blind, they say;

The Moghra flowers, so sweet, so sweet,

Though love be burnt away!”

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• Traveling Dream by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Toad Dreams by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• To the Pay Toilet by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• To Be of Use by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• To a Steam Roller by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• To an Intra-mural Rat by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Woman in the Ordinary by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• The Steeple-Jack by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Seven Of Pentacles by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• The Past is the Present by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Pangolin by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Neighbor by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• The Morning Half-Life Blues by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• The Moment I knew my Life had Changed by Maria Mazziotti Gillan by Poetry In English
• The Friend by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• The Fish by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• The Dark Cavalier by Margaret Widdemer by Poetry In English
• The Colloquy Beneath by Margaret Marie Hubbard by Poetry In English
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