Kashmiri Song

By Laurence Hope 1865–1904 Laurence Hope

Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar,

Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell?

Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway, far,

Before you agonise them in farewell?

Oh, pale dispensers of my Joys and Pains,

Holding the doors of Heaven and of Hell,

How the hot blood rushed wildly through the veins,

Beneath your touch, until you waved farewell.

Pale hands, pink tipped, like Lotus buds that float

On those cool waters where we used to dwell,

I would have rather felt you round my throat,

Crushing out life, than waving me farewell!

Source: India's Love Lyrics (Dodd Mead & Company, 1906)

Biography

Born in Gloucestershire, the British poet Adela Florence Cory was raised by extended family in England after her father, a colonel in the army, was posted to Lahore, India. At 16 Cory joined her father and two sisters in India, where they edited the Sind Gazette. Both of Cory’s sisters went on to pursue literary careers; her elder sister, Isabell, took over the editorship of the Sind Gazette upon their father’s death, and her . . .

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