Violet Nicolson (1865 – 1904) was born Adela Florence Cory in Gloucestershire, England. At age 16 she joined her father in India, and at age 23 married Colonel Malcolm Nicolson of the British Indian Army. Over the following years she travelled with him throughout the country, learning to love its native customs and food, and sharing an adventurous and often dangerous lifestyle with her husband. By this time she was called Violet by her friends and family. In 1900 she began to publish her poetry under the name Laurence Hope, and in 1901 published a book of poems titled The Garden of Kama. A seven-stanza poem entitled “The Singer” is included in that book. An extended setting of “The Singer” for a cappella chorus, with optional instrumental interludes, is in progress. This setting of the first stanza marks the initial stage of that project.
The singer only sang the Joy of Life,
For all too well, alas! the singer knew
How hard the daily toil, how keen the strife,
How salt the falling tear; the joys how few.
