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Title: Heart's Diamond
Author: Theophile Gautier [
More Titles by Gautier]
Every lover deep hath set
In a sacred nook apart
Some dear token for the heart
In its hope or its regret.
One hath nested safe away
Blackest ringlet ever seen,
Over which an azure sheen
Lieth, as on wing of jay.
One from shoulder pale as milk
Took a tress more golden-fine
Than the threads that softly shine
In the silk-worm's wonder-silk.
In its hiding mystical,
Memory's reliquary sweet,
Glances of another greet
Gloves with fingers white and small.
And another yet may list
To inhale a faint perfume
Of the violets from her room,
Freshly given--faded, kissed.
Here a slipper's curving grace
One with sighing treasureth.
There another guards a breath
In a mask's light edge of lace.
I've no slipper to revere,
Neither glove nor tress nor flower;
But I cherish for love's dower
A divine, adored tear,--
Fallen from the blue above,
Clearest dew, heaven's drop for me,
Pearl dissolved secretly
In the chalice of my love.
To mine eyes the dim-worn dew
Beams, a gem of Orient worth,
Standing from the parchment forth,
Diamond of a sapphire blue,--
Steadfast, lustreful and deep!
Tear that fell unhoped, unsought,
On a song my soul once wrought,
From an eye unused to weep.
[The end]
Theophile Gautier's poem: Heart's Diamond
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