by Adela Florence Nicolson (1865 - 1904), as Laurence Hope
The jungle flower
Language: English
Ah, the cool silence of the shaded hours, The scent and colour of the jungle flowers! Thou art one of the jungle flowers, strange and fierce and fair, Palest amber, perfect lines, and scented with champa flower. Lie back and frame thy face in the gloom of thy loosened hair; Sweet thou art and loved -- ay, loved -- for an hour. But thought flies far, ah, far, to another breast, Whose whiteness breaks to the rose of a twin pink flower, Where wind the azure veins that my lips caressed When Fate was gentle to me for a too-brief hour. There is my spirit's home and my soul's abode, The rest are only inns on the traveller's road.
H. Burleigh sets stanzas 2-3
Text Authorship:
- by Adela Florence Nicolson (1865 - 1904), as Laurence Hope, "The jungle flower" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866 - 1949), "The jungle flower", stanzas 2-3 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs of Laurence Hope, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-06
Line count: 12
Word count: 117