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 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 93: So shall I live, supposing thou art true by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 92: But do thy worst to steal thy self away by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 89: Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be disposed to set me light by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 87: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 86: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 85: My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 84: Who is it that says most, which can say more by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 80: O, how I faint when I of you do write by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 7: Lo, in the orient when the gracious light by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 79: Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 78: So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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