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:
- Leaves Compared With Flowers by Robert Frost
- With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses by Vachel Lindsay
- Inscription to Jessie Lewars by Robert Burns
- O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Key Note poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney
- Manipulation by Radames Antonio Cruz
- As the Time Draws Nigh. by Walt Whitman
- Владимир Степанов – Гном (Буква Г)
- Work in Game Design Rather Than Other Design
- Robert Burns: O May, Thy Morn:
- Tis Time, I Think, By Wenlock Town poem – A. E. Housman
- To R. B. poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Robert Burns: The Lass O’ Ballochmyle:
- the secrets , we hide by tulip
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: The Epitaph:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On Captain Matthew Henderson: A Gentleman who held the Patent for his Honours immediately from Almighty God.
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad: At the close of the contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790. Addressed to R. Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
- Robert Burns: Gudewife, Count The Lawin:
- Robert Burns: I Murder Hate:
- Robert Burns: The Gowden Locks Of Anna:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare:
- Robert Burns: Lines To A Gentleman,: Who had sent the Poet a Newspaper, and offered to continue it free of Expense.
- Robert Burns: Scots’ Prologue For Mr. Sutherland: On his Benefit-Night, at the Theatre, Dumfries.
- Robert Burns: Sketch -New Year’s Day [1790]: To Mrs. Dunlop.
- Robert Burns: Prologue Spoken At The Theatre Of Dumfries: On New Year’s Day Evening, 1790.
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad For Westerha’:
- Robert Burns: The Five Carlins: An Election Ballad
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Dr. Blacklock: Ellisland, 21st Oct., 1789
- Robert Burns: To Mary In Heaven:
- Robert Burns: The Whistle -A Ballad:
- Robert Burns: My Heart’s In The Highlands:
- Robert Burns: The Captive Ribband:
- Robert Burns: A Waukrife Minnie:
- Robert Burns: Awa’ Whigs, Awa’:
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.