Sterling

Purple haze surrounding budding flowers
Growing as they cycle, round and round
Heading for an unwanted destiny
Everything must die someday; even me.

But my light is not the sun.
The center of my circle is a girl,
A girl who before my eyes becomes a woman.
And for her, her boy is now a man.

She marks the beginning and end of every day
The tides recede at her will;
Giving her the sand to walk.
I pause to admire the perfection of her footprints.

When I follow her, I always have a destination.
Without, where would the sun set?
I doubt it would even rise.
Closer and closer; she speaks the words on my mind.

The most beautiful woman I have ever seen
Planted in my mind when I least expect it
Her face is like a sterling rose
Set against the summer night.

This is a poem I wrote for the person I most adore. It's so hard to reach perfection, but someday... someday I want to be like her. Copyright and all that other bullshit. Enjoy.

Ster"ling (?), n. Engin.

Same as Starling, 3.

© Webster 1913.

Ster"ling, n. [OE. sterlynge, starling, for easterling, LL. esterlingus, probably from Easterling, once the popular name of German trades in England, whose money was of the purest quality: cf. MHG. sterlink a certain coin. Cf. East. "Certain merchants of Norwaie, Denmarke, and of others those parties, called Ostomanni, or (as in our vulgar language we tearme them), easterlings, because they lie east in respect of us." Holinshed. "In the time of . . . King Richard the First, monie coined in the east parts of Germanie began to be of especiall request in England for the puritie thereof, and was called Easterling monie, as all inhabitants of those parts were called Easterlings, and shortly after some of that countrie, skillful in mint matters and allaies, were sent for into this realme to bring the coine to perfection; which since that time was called of them sterling, for Easterling." Camden. "Four thousand pound of sterlings." R. of Gloucester.]

1.

Any English coin of standard value; coined money.

So that ye offer nobles or sterlings. Chaucer.

And Roman wealth in English sterling view. Arbuthnot.

2.

A certain standard of quality or value for money.

Sterling was the known and approved standard in England, in all probability, from the beginning of King Henry the Second's reign. S. M. Leake.

© Webster 1913.

Ster"ling (?), a.

1.

Belonging to, or relating to, the standard British money of account, or the British coinage; as, a pound sterling; a shilling sterling; a penny sterling; -- now chiefly applied to the lawful money of England; but sterling cost, sterling value, are used.

Shak.

2.

Genuine; pure; of excellent quality; conforming to the highest standard; of full value; as, a work of sterling merit; a man of sterling good sense.

© Webster 1913.