To a Diamond
Thou thing of beauty, with a soul of fire!
In some old Eastern harem long ago
Didst thou adorn the favorite’s hand of snow?
Or did some dark Egyptian queen desire
Thy brilliant flash along her stringed lyre,
While her low-lidded gaze swept proud and slow
The valley where the Nile’s deep waters flow?
Or did some harlot of thy beauty tire?
It matters not. Swart queens have come and gone;
Harlots have triumphed—and have been forgot;
The rose of Power has withered on the vine!
Yet oh, Most Beautiful! it is thy lot
In radiant splendor to go flashing on—
In beauty deathless and in light divine!
"To a Diamond" as it appears in The Cumberland News on August 7, 1900. The Cumberland News was a newspaper on Vancouver Island, B.C.
This poem also appears in Woman’s Home Companion in 1899 and was reprinted most fittingly in The Jewelers’ Circular on November 1, 1899.
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