The Singer

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!

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Poems in English 

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• A Form Of Women by Robert Creely by Anglo File
• A Sonnet Occasioned by the Bad Weather Which Hindered the Sports at New-Market in January, 1616 by William Drummond by Anglo File
• A Little Te Deum Of The Commonplace by John Oxenham by Anglo File
• Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• I think it rains by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• Dedication From Moremi by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• As Like The Woman As You Can by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Thanksgiving by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• At Queensferry by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A New Song to an Old Tune by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Love By The Sea by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Late Lark Twitters From The Quiet Skies by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Dainty Thing’s The Villanelle by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Blithe Dreams Arise To Greet Us by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Beside The Idle Summer Sea by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Youth And Age by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Truisms by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of A Toyokuni Colour-Print by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley

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