1d8 Gems from a Decadent Wizard's Hoard

By way of “What the Sonnet Is” by Eugene Lee-Hamilton (1894)

1.  Fourteen small broidered berries on the hem

     Of Circe’s mantle, each of magic gold;         

2.  Fourteen of lone Calypso’s tears that rolled  

     Into the sea, for pearls to come of them;       

3.  Fourteen clear signs of omen in the gem               

     With which Medea human fate foretold;      

4.  Fourteen small drops, which Faustus, growing old,  

     Craved of the Fiend, to water Life’s dry stem.         

5.  It is the pure white diamond Dante brought 

     To Beatrice; (6.) the sapphire Laura wore        

     When Petrarch cut it sparkling out of thought;         

7.  The ruby Shakespeare hewed from his heart’s core;  

8.  The dark, deep emerald that Rossetti wrought          

     For his own soul, to wear for evermore.