A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
Ah, my lord, are the tidings true,
That thy mother’s jewels are shapen anew?
I hear that a bride has chosen been,
The stars consulted, the parents seen.
Had I been childless, had never there smiled
The brilliant eyes from the face of a child,
Then at least I had understood
This thing they tell me thou findest good.
But I have been down to the River of Death,
With painful footsteps and shuddering breath,
Seven times; thou hast daughters three,
And four young sons who are fair as thee.
I am not unlovely, over my head
Not twenty summers as yet have sped.
‘T is eleven years since my opening life
Was given to thee by my father’s wife.
Ah, those days–They were lovely to me,
When little and shy I waited for thee.
Till I locked my arms round my lover above,
A child in form but a woman in love.
And I bore thy sons, as a woman should,
Year by year, as is meet and good.
Thy mother was ever content with me–
And Oh, Beloved, I worshipped thee!
And now it’s over; alas, my lord,
Better I felt thy sharpest sword.
I hear she is youthful and fair as I
When I came to thee in the days gone by.
Her breasts are firmer; this bosom slips
Somewhat, weighted by children’s lips.
But they were thy children. Oh, lord my king,
Ah, why hast thy heart devised this thing ?
I am not as the women of this thy land,
Meek and timid, broken to hand.
From the distant North I was given to thee,
Whose daughters are passionate, fierce and free,
I could not dwell by a rival’s side,
I seek a bridegroom, as thou a bride.
The night she yieldeth her youth to thee,
Death shall take his pleasure in me.
A few random poems:
- I threaded a garland with the memories of a spring… by Preeth Nambiar
- Curse of Righteousness by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Николай Огарев – Выпьем, что ли, Ваня
- Василий Жуковский – Ахилл
- Alimony by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Высоцкий – Ну что, Кузьма
- Botanically by Satish Verma
- The time has come for us to become madmen in your chain by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- The Beast by Sylvia Plath
- Федор Тютчев – Как нас ни угнетай разлука
- life on the escalator by Raj Arumugam
- Thoughts Mahomed Akram
- a_city_one_wish.html
- The Lady’s Third Song by William Butler Yeats
- Far Within Us #1 by Vasko Popa
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
- A Smuggler’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Ripple Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Recantation by Rudyard Kipling
- A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Nativity by Rudyard Kipling
- A General Summary by Rudyard Kipling
- A Code of Morals by Rudyard Kipling
- A Charm by Rudyard Kipling
- A Carol by Rudyard Kipling
- You Personify God’s Message by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? by Rumi
- Who is at my door? by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- When I am asleep and crumbling in the tomb by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- What Hidden Sweetness Is There by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Weary not of us, for we are very beautiful by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- We Are As The Flute by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Until You’ve Found Pain by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Two Kinds of Intelligence by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- At the Twilight by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- This is Love by Rumi
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.