Poetry · Necklaces 1

Necklaces1

That was a fair one which a Queen

Pulled the great pearl from, in her spleen,

And drank its rich corroded sheen;

And dazzling bright was that which met,

And clasped its fatal diamond net

About Maria Antoinette;

And cool and fresh the dripping band

Which poor Undine, with trembling hand,

Snatched from the wave of Hildebrand;

But better mine, a little thread

Of jasmine blossoms, tipped with red,

As if in breaking they had bled.

It was all sweetness, and to one

Whose life on shore had just begun,

The very best beneath the sun!