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.
A few random poems:
- Brown’s Descent by Robert Frost
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- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 66. Томас Мур.
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- Screw-Guns by Rudyard Kipling
- To Leonide Massine in ‘Cleopatra’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Crown Of Thorns
- “Give me October’s meditative haze” poem – Alfred Austin
- Robert Burns: The Author’s Earnest Cry And Prayer: To the Right Honourable and Honourable Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons.
- MY BEST PAL by Steve Troyanovich
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- Night poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
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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
- What is Creativity Anyway and How Come the Human Mind is So Good at It?
- Poetry and the Power of Words
- Stop Looking For Broken Heart Poems and Quotes and Win Your Ex Back Instead!
- How to Become an Inspiration
- Finding Your Creative Self
- English Literature for Shaping Your Ideas
- Towards Understanding, Through Poetry
- Creativity Leads to Family Enrichment
- Heal Your Broken Heart With Heart Touching Poems
- Poetry of Our Time
- Quietness, Something to Consider… Or Not (2 Poems)
- Kids and Teens and the Phone: Creative Solutions for Your Family
- Teaching Children to Write by Free Writing
- The Dawn Of American Literature
- Seven Deadly Signs of Poetry Scams
- The Key Role of Creativity in Advertising
- Development of Indian English Poetry
- Funny Networking Poem and Do’s and Don’ts
- City Times and Other Poems
- Flowers notebook
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.