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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Poems in English 

• Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 114: Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 113: Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 112: Your love and pity doth th’ impression fill by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 111: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 110: Alas, ’tis true, I have gone here and there by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 10: For shame, deny that thou bear’st love to any by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 109: O, never say that I was false of heart by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 108: What’s in the brain that ink may character by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 106: When in the chronicle of wasted time by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 102: My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet LIV by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Silvia by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sigh No More by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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