Song By Gulbaz
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) “Is it safe to lie so lonely when the summer twilight closes No companion maidens, only you asleep among the roses? “Thirteen, fourteen years you number, and your hair is soft and scented, Perilous is such a slumber in the […]
Sampan Song
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) A little breeze blew over the sea, And it came from far away, Across the fields of millet and rice, All warm with sunshine and sweet with spice, It lifted his curls and kissed him thrice, As upon the deck […]
Reverie Ofmahomed Akram At The Tamarind Tank
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) The Desert is parched in the burning sun And the grass is scorched and white. But the sand is passed, and the march is done, We are camping here to-night. I sit in the shade of the Temple walls, While […]
Reverie Of Mahomed Akram At The Tamarind Tank
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) The Desert is parched in the burning sun And the grass is scorched and white. But the sand is passed, and the march is done, We are camping here to-night. I sit in the shade of the Temple walls, While […]
Palm Trees By The Sea
Love, let me thank you for this! Now we have drifted apart, Wandered away from the sea,– For the fresh touch of your kiss, For the young warmth of your heart, For your youth given to me. Thanks: for the curls of your hair, Softer than silk to the hand, For the clear gaze […]
Ojira To Her Lover
I am waiting in the desert, looking out towards the sunset, And counting every moment till we meet. I am waiting by the marshes and I tremble and I listen Till the soft sands thrill beneath your coming feet. Till I see you, tall and slender, standing clear against the skyline A graceful shade […]
Oh Unforgotten And Only Lover
Oh, unforgotten and only lover, Many years have swept us apart, But none of the long dividing seasons Slay your memory in my heart. In the clash and clamour of things unlovely My thoughts drift back to the times that were, When I, possessing thy pale perfection, Kissed the eyes and caressed the hair. […]
Oh Masters
Oh, Masters, you who rule the world, Will you not wait with me awhile, When swords are sheathed and sails are furled, And all the fields with harvest smile? I would not waste your time for long, I ask you but, when you are tired, To read how by the weak, the strong Are […]
Oh Life I Have Taken You For My Lover
Oh, Life, I have taken you for my Lover, I rent your veils and I found you fair ; If a fault or failing my eyes discover, I will not see it; it is not there ! I know, if I knew, I should hold you dearer, Should understand, if I understood, For I […]
Nay Not To Night
Nay, not to-night;–the slow, sad rain is falling Sorrowful tears, beneath a grieving sky, Far off a famished jackal, faintly calling, Renders the dusk more lonely with its cry. The mighty river rushes, sobbing, seawards, The shadows shelter faint mysterious fears, I turn mine eyes for consolation theewards, And find thy lashes tremulous with […]
Listen Beloved
Listen, Beloved, the Casurinas quiver, Each tassel prays the wind to set it free, Hark to the frantic sobbing of the river, Wild to attain extinction in the sea. All Nature blindly struggles to dissolve In other forms and forces, thus to solve The painful riddle of identity. Ah, that my soul might lose […]
Lallji My Desire
“This is no time for saying ‘no’” Were thy last words to me, And yet my lips refused the kiss They might have given thee. How could I know That thou wouldst go To sleep so far from me? They took thee to the Burning-Ghat, Oh, Lallji, my desire, And now a faint and […]
Lalila To The Ferengi Lover
Why above others was I so blessed And honoured? to be chosen one To hold you, sleeping, against my breast, As now I may hold your only son. Twelve months ago; that wonderful night! You gave your life to me in a kiss; Have I done well, for that past delight, In return, to […]
I Arise And Go Down To The River
I arise and go down to the River, and currents that come from the sea, Still fresh with the salt of the ocean, are lovely and precious to me, The waters are silver and silent, except where the kingfisher dips, Or the ripples wash off from my shoulder the reddening stain of thy lips. Two […]
Hira Singhs Farewell To Burmah
On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie, With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky: A glimmer of dimmer silver here, from the anklets round your feet, Our lips may close on each other’s lips, but never our souls may meet. For though in […]
Golden Eyes
Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes! Oh Eyes so softly gay! Wherein swift fancies fall and rise, Grow dark and fade away. Eyes like a little limpid pool That holds a sunset sky, While on its surface, calm and cool, Blue water lilies lie. Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes, You smiled on me […]
From Behind The Lattice
I see your red-gold hair and know How white the hidden skin must be, Though sun-kissed face and fingers show The fervour of the noon-day glow, The keenness of the sea. My longing fancies ebb and flow, Still circling constant unto this; My great desire (ah, whisper low) To plant on thy forbidden snow […]
Feroza
The evening sky was as green as Jade, As Emerald turf by Lotus lake, Behind the Kafila far she strayed, (The Pearls are lost if the Necklace break!) A lingering freshness touched the air From palm-trees, clustered around a Spring, The great, grim Desert lay vast and bare, But Youth is ever a careless […]
Farewell
Farewell, Aziz, it was not mine to fold you Against my heart for any length of days. I had no loveliness, alas, to hold you, No siren voice, no charm that lovers praise. Yet, in the midst of grief and desolation, Solace I my despairing soul with this: Once, for my life’s eternal consolation, […]
Early Love
Who says I wrong thee, my half-opened rose? Little he knows of thee or me, or love.– I am so tender of thy fragile youth, Yea, in my hours of wildest ecstasy, Keeping close-bitted each careering sense. Only I give mine eyes unmeasured law To feed them where they will, and _their_ delight Was […]
Back To The Border
The tremulous morning is breaking Against the white waste of the sky, And hundreds of birds are awaking In tamarisk bushes hard by. I, waiting alone in the station, Can hear in the distance, grey-blue, The sound of that iron desolation, The train that will bear me from you. ‘T will carry me under […]
Adoration
Who does not feel desire unending To solace through his daily strife, With some mysterious Mental Blending, The hungry loneliness of life? Until, by sudden passion shaken, As terriers shake a rat at play, He finds, all blindly, he has taken The old, Hereditary way. Yet, in the moment of communion, The very heart […]
Thoras Song Ashtaroth
Thora’s Song (‘Ashtaroth’) by Adam Lindsay Gordon We severed in Autumn early, Ere the earth was torn by the plough; The wheat and the oats and the barley Are ripe for the harvest now. We sunder’d one misty morning Ere the hills were dimm’d by the rain; Through the flowers those hills […]
The Last Leap
The Last Leap by Adam Lindsay Gordon ALL is over! fleet career, Dash of greyhound slipping thongs, Flight of falcon, bound of deer, Mad hoof-thunder in our rear, Cold air rushing up our lungs, Din of many tongues. Once again, one struggle good, One vain effort;—he must dwell Near the shifted post, […]
Vain
I O foolish tears, go back! Learn to cover your jealous pride far down in the nerveless heart that ye are voices for. Your sobbings mar the unfinished picture that my trembling life would fill up to greet its dawn. I know, poor heart, that you are reaching up to a Love that finds […]
Myself
“La patience est amère; mais le fruit en est doux!” I Away down into the shadowy depths of the Real I once lived. I thought that to seem was to be. But the waters of Marah were beautiful, yet they were bitter. I waited, and hoped, and prayed; Counting the heart-throbs and the tears […]
My Heritage
“My heritage!” It is to live within The marts of Pleasure and of Gain, yet be No willing worshiper at either shrine; To think, and speak, and act, not for my pleasure, But others’. The veriest slave of time And circumstances. Fortune’s toy! To hear of fraud, injustice, and oppression, And feel who is […]
Judith
“Repent, or I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight thee with the sword of my mouth.” -Revelation ii. 16. I Ashkelon is not cut off with the remnant of a valley. Baldness dwells not upon Gaza. The field of the valley is mine, and it is clothed in verdure. The steepness of […]
Hemlock Furrows
I O crownless soul of Ishmael! Uplifting and unfolding the white tent of dreams against the sunless base of eternity! Looking up through thy dumb desolation for white hands to reach out over the shadows, downward, from the golden bastions of God’s eternal Citadel! Praying for Love to unloose the blushing bindings of his […]
Dying
I Leave me; oh! leave me, Lest I find this low earth sweeter than the skies. Leave me lest I deem Faith’s white bosom bared to the betraying arms of Death. Hush your fond voice, lest it shut out the angel trumpet-call! See my o’erwearied feet bleed for rest. Loose the clinging and the […]
Depths
I Lost-lost-lost! To me, for ever, the seat near the blood of the feast. To me, for ever, the station near the Throne of Love! To me, for ever, the Kingdom of Heaven-and I the least. Oh, the least in love- The least in joy- The least in life- The least in death- The […]
Battle Stars
Alone on the hill of storms The voice of the wind shrieks through the mountain. The torrent rushes down the rocks. Red are hundred streams of the light-covered paths of the dead. Shield me in from the storm, I that am a daughter of the stars, and wear the purple and gold of bards, […]
In The Bus That Is Frantically Rushing From Cairo To Port Said
In The Bus That is Frantically Rushing from Cairo to Port Said by Admiral Mahic I could have gotten married in Egypt With one sun ray, That is masterfully openinig gates of fields in front of the bus that is frantically rushing from Cairo to Port Said … Beside me, the […]
The Vain Question
Why should we court the storms that rave and rend, Safe at our household hearth? Why, starved and naked, without home or friend, Unknowing whence we came or where we wend, Follow from no beginning to no end An uncrowned martyr’s path? Is it worth while to waste our all in vain? To seek, […]
The Soldiers Grave
‘Twas long ago, in the summer-time, On a day as sad as this, That I laid my babe in its father’s arms, And he gave it his farewell kiss; When the army sail’d from the English shores In a mist of sun and rain, To the vine-clad hills and citadels And the olive groves […]
The Old Manor House
An old house, crumbling half away, all barnacled and lichen-grown, Of saddest, mellowest, softest grey,-with a grand history of its own- Grand with the work and strife and tears of more than half a thousand years. Such delicate, tender, russet tones of colour on its gables slept, With streaks of gold betwixt the stones, […]
The Old Maids Story
Ay, many and many a year’s gone by, Since the dawn of that day in spring, When we met in the pine-woods, Harry and I, And he gave me this golden ring. I had lovers in plenty, of high degree, Who wooed in my father’s hall; But none were so noble and brave as […]
The Legend Of Lady Gertrude
I. Fallen the lofty halls, where vassal crowds Drank in the dawn of Gertrude’s natal day. The dungeon roof an Alpine snow-wreath shrouds, The strong, wild eagle’s eyrie in the clouds- The robber-baron’s nest-is swept away. II. Bare is the mountain brow of lordly towers; Only the sunbeams stay, the moon and stars, The […]
The Kind Word
Speak kindly, wife; the little ones will grow Fairest and straightest in the warmest sun. We talk so often of the seed we sow; But, maybe, when we think our labour done, And when we look to gather in the grain, We’ll find these stones, we fling about, again Strewing the fruitless sod, Having […]
The Hand In The Dark
How calm the spangled city spread below! How cool the night! How fair the starry skies! How sweet the dewy breezes! But I know What, under all their seeming beauty, lies. That million-fibred heart, alive, is wrung With every grief that human creatures fear. Could its dumb anguish find a fitting tongue The very […]