Surface Rights

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?

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random 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 

• Sixteen Dead Men by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Shepherd And Goatherd by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• September 1913 by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Sailing To Byzantium by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Running To Paradise by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Roger Casement by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Responsibilities; Introduction by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Hosting Of The Sidhe by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Host Of The Air by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Heart Of The Woman by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Hawk by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Happy Townland by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Gyres by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Grey Rock by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Ghost Of Roger Casement by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Fool By The Roadside by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Folly Of Being Comforted by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Fisherman by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Fish by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Fiddler Of Dooney by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works