Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79. | | | | Saint Petersburg | | The Crown Jewels | | Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923) |
| | | EYE of a god was this blazing stone, | |
| Beyond the snows of the Himalaya; | |
| These dazzling stars might have lit the zone | |
| Of the Queen of Jove or the Grace, Aglaia; | |
| And the rubies are such as the Burman king | 5 |
| Sends his elephants white to bring, | |
| With a troop of soldiers and high grandees | |
| Greeting the finder, on bended knees. | |
| Here ’s an emerald rare as the rose of pride | |
| Cortez gave his Castilian bride, | 10 |
| And lustrous-green as the Indian gem | |
| Charlemagne wore in his diadem; | |
| And pearls hard-won by the Ceylonese | |
| From the silent depths of the tropic seas, | |
| While the conjurer muttered his spells ashore | 15 |
| Till the diver’s toils for the day were o’er; | |
| And crystals, amber, and amethyst, | |
| That only the Oural caves could harden,— | |
| Bright as blossoms the sun has kissed | |
| In the fairy plots of a palace garden. | 20 | | | |
|
|
