A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)
They lay the slender body down
With all its wealth of wetted hair,
Only a daughter of the town,
But very young and slight and fair.
The eyes, whose light one cannot see,
Are sombre doubtless, like the tresses,
The mouth’s soft curvings seem to be
A roseate series of caresses.
And where the skin has all but dried
(The air is sultry in the room)
Upon her breast and either side,
It shows a soft and amber bloom.
By women here, who knew her life,
A leper husband, I am told,
Took all this loveliness to wife
When it was barely ten years old.
And when the child in shocked dismay
Fled from the hated husband’s care
He caught and tied her, so they say,
Down to his bedside by her hair.
To some low quarter of the town,
Escaped a second time, she flew;
Her beauty brought her great renown
And many lovers here she knew,
When, as the mystic Eastern night
With purple shadow filled the air,
Behind her window framed in light,
She sat with jasmin in her hair.
At last she loved a youth, who chose
To keep this wild flower for his own,
He in his garden set his rose
Where it might bloom for him alone.
Cholera came; her lover died,
Want drove her to the streets again,
And women found her there, who tried
To turn her beauty into gain.
But she who in those garden ways
Had learnt of Love, would now no more
Be bartered in the market place
For silver, as in days before.
That former life she strove to change;
She sold the silver off her arms,
While all the world grew cold and strange
To broken health and fading charms.
Till, finding lovers, but no friend,
Nor any place to rest or hide,
She grew despairing at the end,
Slipped softly down a well and died.
And yet, how short, when all is said,
This little life of love and tears!
Her age, they say, beside her bed,
To-day is only fifteen years.
A few random poems:
- What Shall I Do For the Land that Bred Me poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath
- Aphrodite – The Birth by Uma Maheswari Anandane
- Amnesiac by Sylvia Plath
- Олег Бундур – На высоком берегу
- Home After Three Months Away by Robert Lowell
- Владимир Маяковский – При свободной торговле… (Главполитпросвет №232)
- Lightning In The Dark Night Skies
- September 1815 by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Frae The Friends And Land I Love:
- mother.html
- Farewell To Italy poem – Alfred Austin
- Гавриил Державин – На прогулку в грузинском саду
- Before You Returned by Shahida Latif
- The Coquette by William Somervile
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
- Robert Burns: Epistle To J. Lapraik, An Old Scottish Bard:
- Robert Burns: Death and Doctor Hornbook : A True Story
- Robert Burns: Tarbolton Lasses, The:
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Holy Willie:
- Robert Burns: Holy Willie’s Prayer: “And send the godly in a pet to pray.” – Pope.
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Davie, A Brother Poet:
- Robert Burns: The Twa Herds; Or, The Holy Tulyie: An Unco Mournfu’ Tale
- Robert Burns: Man Was Made To Mourn: A Dirge:
- Robert Burns: Lines On The Author’s Death: Written With The Supposed View Of Being Handed To Rankine After The Poet’s Interment
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On John Rankine:
- Robert Burns: On Tam The Chapman:
- Robert Burns: Another [Epigram On The Said Occasion… On A Henpecked Country Squire]:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On The Said Occasion [On A Henpecked Country Squire]:
- Robert Burns: Tragic Fragment:
- Robert Burns: On A Henpecked Country Squire:
- Robert Burns: On A Noisy Polemic:
- Robert Burns: The Belles Of Mauchline:
- Robert Burns: My Girl She’s Airy: Fragment
- Robert Burns: The Mauchline Lady: Fragment
- Robert Burns: O Leave Novels:
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
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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.