The First Wife

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.

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 

• On A Picture Of A Black Centaur By Edmund Dulac by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Old Tom Again by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Old Memory by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Oil And Blood by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• O Do Not Love Too Long by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• News For The Delphic Oracle by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Never Give All The Heart by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Mohini Chatterjee by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Model For The Laureate by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Michael Robartes And The Dancer by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Men Improve With The Years by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Memory by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Meeting by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Meditations In Time Of Civil War by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Byzantium by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Blood And The Moon by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Before The World Was Made by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Beautiful Lofty Things by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Baile And Aillinn 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