Song Of The Peri

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

Beauty, the Gift of Gifts, I give to thee.

Pleasure and love shall spring around thy feet

As through the lake the lotuses arise

Pinkly transparent and divinely sweet.

I give thee eyes aglow like morning stars,

Delicate brows, a mist of sable tresses,

That all the journey of thy lie may be

Lit up by love and softened by caresses.

For those who once were proud and softly bred

Shall, kneeling, wait thee as thou passest by,

They who were pure shall stretch forth eager hands

Crying, “Thy pity, Lord, before we die!”

And one shall murmur, “If the sun at dawn

Shall open and caress a happy flower,

What blame to him, although the blossom fade

In the full splendour of his noontide power?”

And one, “If aloes close together grow

It well may chance a plant shall wounded be,

Pierced by the thorntips of another’s leaves,

Thus am I hurt unconsciously by thee.”

For some shall die and many more shall sin,

Suffering for thy sake till seven times seven,

Because of those most perfect lips of thine

Which held the power to make or mar their heaven.

And though thou givest back but cruelty,

Their love, persistent, shall not heed nor care,

All those whose ears are fed with blame of thee

Shall say, “It may be so, but he was fair.”

Ay, those who lost the whole of youth for thee,

Made early and for ever, shamed and sad,

Shall sigh, re-living some sweet memory,

“Ah, once it was his will to make me glad.”

Thy nights shall be as bright as summer days,

The sequence of thy sins shall seem as duty,

Since I have given thee, Oh, Gift of Gifts!–

The pale perfection of unrivalled beauty.

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Poems in English 

• The Exeter Road poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The End poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Cyclists poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Cross-Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Crescent Moon poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Captured Goddess poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Bungler poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Boston Athenaeum poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Bombardment poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Blue Scarf poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Basket poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Teatro Bambino. Dublin, N. H. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sword Blades and Poppy Seed poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell
• Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Lowell

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Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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