MY SAPPHIRE.

I have a sapphire rich and fair

And soft as a velvet sky,

When only the stars are shining low

And the heavens hold a mystic glow

And a hushed world stands agaze to know

The wonderful Whence and Why.

I have a sapphire that I turn

In the dark of somber days:

And the darting tongues of nickering blue

Flash deep and rare in wondrous hue,

Sharp as the lightning, pure as the dew,

And true as m'lady' s gaze.

I have a sapphire that I hold

Beneath the chandelier:

And the phosphor of its azure gleam

Sweeps clear as the depths of the mountain stream

Where the Sun-god hurls his molten beam

In the morn of the golden year.

I have a sapphire I adore —

Of varying whims and moods —

Blue-black it lies with never a mark

Across the dim unfathomed dark,

Till there lifts the glow of a tiny spark —

And again it sullen broods.

I have a sapphire that I bend

‘ Neath the light of burning rays:

And the flames spread forth a fairy fire,

Seething and writhing and leaping higher

Till they come to the land of my heart's desire,

In a glittering, blinding blaze.

I have a sapphire that I hold.

When the goal seems far away:

When the lee shore churns in saffron spume.

And the fluctuant ocean's plume on plume

Bears down to a rock-ribbed hidden doom,

And the sky is ashen gray.

I have a sapphire that I turn;

And the clouds break, and the wine

Of a glorious sun spreads east and west

To where the Islands of the Blest

Raise verdant shores at my behest,

And a golden world is mine.

Oh Sapphire from a distant vale

Where the white Himalayas tower:

Where the Kashmir lakes are royal blue,

And passions strong and hearts are true,

All these are met and blent in you,

A princely heir and dower.