The Tom Toms

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

Dost thou hear the tom-toms throbbing,

Like a lonely lover sobbing

For the beauty that is robbing him of all his life’s delight?

Plaintive sounds, restrained, enthralling,

Seeking through the twilight falling

Something lost beyond recalling, in the darkness of the night.

Oh, my little, loved Firoza,

Come and nestle to me closer,

Where the golden-balled Mimosa makes a canopy above,

For the day, so hot and burning,

Dies away, and night, returning,

Sets thy lover’s spirit yearning for thy beauty and thy love.

Soon will come the rosy warning

Of the bright relentless morning,

When, thy soft caresses scorning, I shall leave thee in the shade.

All the day my work must chain me,

And its weary bonds restrain me,

For I may not re-attain thee till the light begins to fade.

But at length the long day endeth,

As the cool of night descendeth

His last strength thy lover spendeth in returning to thy breast,

Where beneath the Babul nightly,

While the planets shimmer whitely,

And the fire-flies glimmer brightly, thou shalt give him love and rest.

Far away, across the distance,

The quick-throbbing drums’ persistence

Shall resound, with soft insistence, in the pauses of delight,

Through the sequence of the hours,

While the starlight and the flowers

Consecrate this love of ours, in the Temple of the Night.

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Poems in English 

• A Farewell To Youth poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Dream Of England poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Dialogue At Fiesole poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Defence Of English Spring poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Country Nosegay poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Christmas Carol poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Captive Throstle poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Border Burn poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Birthday Present poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• You Smile Upon Your Friend To-Day poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• White in the Moon the Long Road Lies poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When the Lad for Longing Sigh poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When the Lad for Longing Sigh poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When Smoke Stood Up From Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When Smoke Stood Up From Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When I Watch the Living Meet poem – Alfred Edward Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When I Watch the Living Meet poem – Alfred Edward Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When I Came Last to Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• When I Came Last to Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Westward on the High-Hilled Plains poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman

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