A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
The singer only sang the Joy of Life,
For all too well, alas! the singer knew
How hard the daily toil, how keen the strife,
How salt the falling tear; the joys how few.
He who thinks hard soon finds it hard to live,
Learning the Secret Bitterness of Things:
So, leaving thought, the singer strove to give
A level lightness to his lyric strings.
He only sang of Love; its joy and pain,
But each man in his early season loves;
Each finds the old, lost Paradise again,
Unfolding leaves, and roses, nesting doves.
And though that sunlit time flies all too fleetly,
Delightful Days that dance away too soon!
Its early morning freshness lingers sweetly
Throughout life’s grey and tedious afternoon.
And he, whose dreams enshrine her tender eyes,
And she, whose senses wait his waking hand,
Impatient youth, that tired but sleepless lies,
Will read perhaps, and reading, understand.
Oh, roseate lips he would have loved to kiss,
Oh, eager lovers that he never knew!
What should you know of him, or words of his?–
But all the songs he sang were sung for you!
A few random poems:
- Ольга Берггольц – Память (Всей земною горечью и болью)
- Two Quits And A Drum And Elegy For Drinkers
- Cut Grass by Philip Larkin
- Ольга Седакова – Маленькое посвящение Владимиру Ивановичу Хвостину
- Валерий Брюсов – Две вазы
- The Wold Waggon by William Barnes
- Николай Заболоцкий – Горийская симфония
- A Gemini’s Hurt by Stephen Allen
- A Knocker poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster
- A Funeral Poem on the Death of C.E. by Phillis Wheatley
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Major Logan:
- Михаил Лермонтов – Вечер после дождя
- Robert Burns: Stay My Charmer:
- The Jester by Rudyard Kipling
- A Domestic Dialogue by Mike Yuan
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
- The Great Palaces Of Versailles by Rita Dove
- Teach Us To Number Our Days by Rita Dove
- Primer by Rita Dove
- Persephone, Falling by Rita Dove
- Mushrooms by Rina Ferrarelli
- Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Return To Vienna by Rita Dove
- Lines Composed on the Body Politic by Rita Dove
- Lady Freedom Among Us by Rita Dove
- I hear the roar of a Harley… by River Urke
- Heart To Heart by Rita Dove
- Hades’ Pitch by Rita Dove
- Fifth Grade Autobiography by Rita Dove
- Exit by Rita Dove
- Dawn Revisited by Rita Dove
- Chocolate by Rita Dove
- Cavern in Paradise by Rita Odessa Villaruel
- Broccoli by Rina Ferrarelli
- Birth Of A Flower by Riss Ryker
- American Smooth by Rita Dove
- Amarene by Rina Ferrarelli
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.