A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
Drifting, drifting down the River,
Tawny current and foam-flecked tide,
Sorrowful songs of lonely boatmen,
Mournful forests on either side.
Thine are the outcrops’ glittering blocks,
The quartz where the rich pyrites gleam,
The golden treasure of unhewn rocks
And the loose gold in the stream.
But,–the dim vast forests along the shore,
That whisper wonderful things o’ nights,–
These are things that I value more,
My beautiful “surface rights.”
Drifting, drifting down the River,–
Stars a-tremble about the sky–
Ah, my lover, my heart is breaking,
Breaking, breaking, I know not why.
Why is Love such a sorrowful thing?
This I never could understand;
Pain and passion are linked together,
Ever I find them hand in hand.
Loose thy hair in its soft profusion,
Let thy lashes caress thy cheek,–
These are the things that express thy spirit,
What is the need to explain or speak?
Drifting, drifting along the River,
Under the light of a wan low moon,
Steady, the paddles; Boatmen, steady,–
Why should we reach the sea so soon?
See where the low spit cuts the water,
What is that misty wavering light?
Only the pale datura flowers
Blossoming through the silent night.
What is the fragrance in thy tresses?
‘T is the scent of the champa’s breath;
The meaning of champa bloom is passion–
And of datura–death!
Sweet are thy ways and thy strange caresses,
That sear as flame, and exult as wine.
But I care only for that wild moment
When my soul arises and reaches thine.
Wistful voices of wild birds calling–
Far, faint lightning towards the West,–
Twinkling lights of a Tyah homestead,–
Ruddy glow on a girl’s bare breast–
Drifting boats on a mournful River,
Shifting thoughts in a dreaming mind,–
We two, seeking the Sea, together,–
When we reach it,–what shall we find?
A few random poems:
- Sonnet 11 poem – John Milton poems
- The Little Dell by William Allingham
- In The Train by Sara Teasdale
- Robert Burns: To John Kennedy, Dumfries House:
- A Hedge Of Rubber Trees poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Withering Of The Boughs by William Butler Yeats
- Олег Григорьев – Шмель
- It is the Muses by Sappho
- Наум Коржавин – Еж и Заяц
- “The Girt Woak Tree That’s In the Dell” by William Barnes
- “‘Tis because, though in dusky bower” poem – Alfred Austin
- Sonnet CVI by William Shakespeare
- His Pilgrimage by Sir Walter Raleigh
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Curtis by Susan King Saunders
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
- History by Robert Lowell
- Dolphin by Robert Lowell
- Now That You’re Gone by Roberto Cocina
- My World Destroyed by Roberto Cocina
- My Heart Screams by Roberto Cocina
- My Beach by Robert Saltzman
- Mortal Words by Robert McNamara
- Memories of West Street and Lepke by Robert Lowell
- Man And Wife by Robert Lowell
- Identification In Belfast by Robert Lowell
- Homecoming by Robert Lowell
- Home After Three Months Away by Robert Lowell
- High School Crush by Roberto Cocina
- Greengrocer by Robert McNamara
- For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell
- Fake Identity by Roberto Cocina
- Epilogue by Robert Lowell
- Don’t Disappear by Roberto Cocina
- Crossroads by Roger Hayes
- Artistic Soul Retold by Roberto Cocina
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.