This should stand upon the table
Near my bed, and then, whenever
Friends appear’d and were astonish’d
At the beauty of the trinket,—
At the wondrous bas-reliefs,
Small in size, and yet so perfect
Notwithstanding,—at the jewels
Of such size incrusted on it,—
I should smilingly address them:
That is but the vulgar covering
That contains a nobler treasure—
In this casket there are lying
Diamonds, whose light doth mirror
And reflect the light of heaven,
Rubies glowing as the heart’s blood,
Turquoises of spotless beauty,
And fair emeralds of promise,
Likewise pearls of greater value
Than the pearls to Queen Atossa
Given by the false knave Smerdis,
And that afterwards were worn by
All the notabilities
Who this mundane earth have dwelt in,
Thais first, then Cleopatra,
Priests of Isis, Moorish princes,
And the queens of old Hispania,
And at last the worthy Madame
Salomon, the Baroness.—
For those pearls of world-wide glory
After all are but the mucus
Of a poor unhappy oyster
Lying sickly in the ocean;
But the pearls within this casket
Are the offspring of a beauteous
Human spirit, far far deeper
Than the ocean’s deepest depths,—
For they are the pearly tears
Of Jehuda ben Halevy,
That he over the destruction
Of Jerusalem let fall.