Explore "Some Verses: Sonnets: THE RUBY" by Helen Hay Whitney on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Ah -- she was fair, this daughter of a queen! / Jewels upon her breast's soft fall of snow, / Jewels -- in golden hair -- and fierce aglow, / The gem of pride upon her brow serene! / Sleeping soft moonstone, emerald's baleful green, / A single sapphire, singing soft and low / Of wars for beauty's sake in years ago, / And flaming opal -- wed with tourmaline.
Yet was there one great stone she might not wear, / And so her eyes were weary, and her mouth / Curved in the listless line of vain desire.
No diamond pure was hers the right to bear, / But -- crimson poison petal of the South -- / The ruby shone in deep unholy fire.