I LIKE a diamond on a roseleaf when the dew has gemm'd the flower, Like the first faint flush of sunrise stealing over stream and tower, Like the palest light of evening, darkly deep'ning every hour, So the jewels of dawn and dusk meet in thine eyes. II Like a brook that purls and ripples ever with a silvery sound, Like the chime of distant sleigh-bells tinkling over frosty ground, Like a soft-toned @3Stradivarius@1 breathing on a spirit-wound, So cadenced falls the music of thy voice. III Like the whiteness of the hawthorn when the summer months are near, Like the warmth of tender nestlings zoned within a mossy sphere, Like the bounty of the gorse-bloom that engarlands all the year, So boon to bless, thy love-enladen hands. IV Like the tints that fall at sunset on a cloudlet's drifting snow, Like the flash of crimson streamers when the Alpine ridges glow, Like the blossoms of the almond, like the petals of the sloe, So blush and pale the roses of thy cheeks. V Like the dawn to one immuréd in a dungeon cold and grim, Like the faint, far hope of Summer breaking over woodlands dim, Like soft moonlight on the waters when it floods the ocean's brim, So steals upon a darken'd heart thy smile. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BRICKLAYER LOVE by CARL SANDBURG HUFFMAN'S PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GRAVES OF THE UNKNOWN AT LITTLE BIGHORN by KAREN SWENSON |