The Tom Toms

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

Dost thou hear the tom-toms throbbing,

Like a lonely lover sobbing

For the beauty that is robbing him of all his life’s delight?

Plaintive sounds, restrained, enthralling,

Seeking through the twilight falling

Something lost beyond recalling, in the darkness of the night.

Oh, my little, loved Firoza,

Come and nestle to me closer,

Where the golden-balled Mimosa makes a canopy above,

For the day, so hot and burning,

Dies away, and night, returning,

Sets thy lover’s spirit yearning for thy beauty and thy love.

Soon will come the rosy warning

Of the bright relentless morning,

When, thy soft caresses scorning, I shall leave thee in the shade.

All the day my work must chain me,

And its weary bonds restrain me,

For I may not re-attain thee till the light begins to fade.

But at length the long day endeth,

As the cool of night descendeth

His last strength thy lover spendeth in returning to thy breast,

Where beneath the Babul nightly,

While the planets shimmer whitely,

And the fire-flies glimmer brightly, thou shalt give him love and rest.

Far away, across the distance,

The quick-throbbing drums’ persistence

Shall resound, with soft insistence, in the pauses of delight,

Through the sequence of the hours,

While the starlight and the flowers

Consecrate this love of ours, in the Temple of the Night.

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Poems in English 

• Владимир Вишневский – В Мисхоре by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Тем, что в женщине разбудишь by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Стада уж боле не пасутся мирно by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Пассажирский поезд by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Она идёт – как Восток алеет by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Незаконная гордость by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Нервическая песнь by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – На исходе двадцатого века by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Мой брат на много лет вперёд by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Кто-то тянется к водному поло by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Как некстати или срыв спецоперации by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Из дневника читателя by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Долго же мы друг друга откладывали by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Вишневский – Что хочешь ты – желанье изъяви by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Зима by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Жучка и тучка by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Юрий Гагарин by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Ёжик и дождик by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Яхта (Буква Я) by Владимр Степанов
• Владимир Степанов – Хрюшка by Владимр Степанов

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