The Diamond
When Earth was young and life was new
An alien forest clothed a land
Where dreadful monsters crept and flew,
All meant for my beloved’s hand.
They went the way of all life, fell
To earth, beneath earth to withstand
A lightless, crushing, white-hot hell—
All this for my beloved’s hand.
Not hell, but Purgatory, where
For eons so entombed, it wanned
From soft and drab to hard and clear,
Made pure for my beloved’s hand.
With pick-axe blows it then was torn
Forever from its native band.
It saw the sun again, reborn
To shine on my beloved’s hand.
Then defter hands and keener eyes
Used blade and beam and wheel and sand
To shape it to a sparkling prize
Befitting my beloved’s hand.
Among the jeweler’s wares it gleamed
But one of many thousands and
Not largest, but the one I deemed
Just right for my beloved’s hand.
Its change complete, I proudly bear
That simple carbon, now so grand.
I lay it with my heart out bare
And ask for my beloved’s hand.
Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.
Thank you, Adam, for this skilfully written, imaginative and very enjoyable poem, expressed with so much restrained feeling. I love your repeated rhymes with ‘hand’, especially the boldness of ‘and’! Best wishes, Bruce
Thank you, Bruce. Constraint forces creativity, and finding seven rhymes for “hand” was I believe a fortuitous self-imposed rule.
Outstanding! This is one of those poems that I felt compelled to read three times right from the jump. So creative, interesting, and perfect in its rhyme and meter. A unique achievement. Congratulations, Adam!
Thank you! Your compliments flatter me.
Adam, this is a beautiful poem concerning the history of a diamond from its creation and formation to a loved one’s destination.
A wonderful conceit of the genesis of a diamond from its prehistoric start in carbon-based life in the age of dinosaurs, to its aeons-long metamorphosis in the hot throat of a volcano, to its mining, its artistic fashioning into a gem, and its role as part of a wedding ring. Sedia’s use of “Purgatory” not in its religious sense, but as a metaphor for coal’s fiery transformation to diamond, is unexpected but striking. “A lightless, crushing, white-hot hell” is an apt description of the deep recesses of volcanic activity.
What is especially effective here is how the poem moves from the utter impersonality of millions of years of geological change to the deeply personal final two quatrains, where all of the preceding description blossoms into a wedding ring, and a marriage proposal.
Some very sharp poetic facets here: the poet’s success in finding 14 fitting rhymes for “hand”, the expert variation of the beginning of the repetend line that concludes every quatrain, and the daring use of the verb “to wan” in line 10. Many poets shy away from rare words, and as a result stifle their own powers of invention. “To wan” means to grow pale, to lose strength, and is far less common than the related verb “to wane.” But Sedia needed that /-and/ rhyme, realizing (as every good poet realizes) that the intrinsic perfection of a poem is far more important than worrying about whether some anonymous reader might not understand something.
I also note that quatrains 4 and 5 continue the intense violence of the start of the poem, but by human hands. The “fierce pick-axe blows” of the miner have “torn” the rough diamond from the earth; and the diamond cutters use “blade and beam and wheel and sand” to shape the gem. How exact Sedia is on this — the cutting of gems involves the sharp blade carefully angled to make a proper cleavage; it sometimes requires the laser beam for extra-close cuts; the polishing wheel is needed to produce the perfect finish, and the abrasive grit of fine sand is also part of the process. All of this takes the pre-human violence of the diamond’s creation and brings it to a different stage of human violence that is necessary to produce a work of art.
What a poem. Interesting, intriguing, and as precisely cut and polished as the diamond being shown to us.
Thank you, Dr Salemi. As I mentioned below, I actually proposed to my wife with this poem. I’m especially grateful to see you appreciate the research I put into it. When I was researching to choose the cut, I learned quite a bit about diamond quality and cutting techniques. (I chose the Deco-style Asscher cut, which is still my favorite.)
Your nuanced reading does the poem’s subtleties ample justice, and I am grateful you shared it.
Magnificent creation story, Adam. Good to start with the primeval forest already existing, as the carbon in stellar dust and gas would be lifeless. You take the more interesting potential of fossil carbon as the diamond’s prehistory, with cosmic geologic dimensions of an earthly hell and purgatory. Purgatory has the beautiful symbolic function of purifying the material to correspond with the beloved’s hand. The refrain does as much on the sonic level as the narrative on the story level to emphasize the rarity and destiny of the precious gem–created to take its highly emblematic place in an exalted account of human love. As you show with choice of scenic words, the diamond moves up in the world. Finally, it not only beautifies beauty, but with the covalent bonding that gives it hardness along with brightness, it contributes to courtesy that could be described as covalent, when the lover appeals for his beloved’s consent. That final stanza also employs covalent sound with “bear” and “bare.” The reader can only presume the proposal is successful. The poem most surely is!
Thank you, Margaret. I actually proposed to my wife with this very poem, so it was a successful proposal. That was twelve years ago. I ran this in one of my books, but waited until now to publish it via submission.
When I was diamond shopping for the proposal, I thought about what it was I was buying and what it meant. I wanted to make it more than just an object of beauty and monetary value, and I’m thrilled to see you expound on the layers of meaning the finished product has.
Adam, once again you have proven how incredibly adept you are as a poet and creative thinker. I absolutely love the whole concept of taking a diamond from dinosaurs fossils undergoing pressure and time to becoming a token of love. I have never seen any poet approach the making of a diamond in this way before. There is something so clean, and accurate, yet new and innovative and heartfelt in your writings. Thank for such an excellent poem!!!
Thank you! “Innovative” and “heartfelt” are two of the highest compliments I can receive as a poet, and I am flattered to hear them from you. I am incredibly happy you found enjoyment and meaning in this work.
Love that refrain Adam – enchanting!
Thank you, James.
Very enjoyable, Adam. A poem every science teacher should know to make the boring parts of carbon to diamond transformation more memorable.
By the way, yesterday I wrote a Jurassic weather forecast poem. It’s not half as much fun as your tens of millions of years of compacted carbon.
Thank you! A little bit of science edifies poetry, and a little bit of poetry enlivens science. The two disciplines need each other, and siloing them off from each other does both a disservice.
I just love this fusion of epochs and intimacy. The repetition of “my beloved’s hand” anchors the poem in the significance of love beautifully, and the transformation from carbon through the hellish to the heavenly is inspired, and inspirational. Love demands patience under pressure, metaphorically and literally, your poem says it perfectly. Great stuff! Thank you, Adam.
Thank you! I wanted to capture the parallel transformation of the soul through love and the diamond itself. You neatly summarize one of the poem’s central ideas.