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Pearl
Middle English poem
Pearl, an elegiac dream vision known from a single manuscript dated about 1400. The poem is preserved with the chivalric romance Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight and two homiletic poems called Patience and Purity.
Pearl was composed in stanzaic form, with alliteration used for ornamental effect. Technically it is one of the most complex poems in the language, an attempt to create in words an analogy to the jeweler’s art. The jeweler-poet is vouchsafed a heavenly vision in which he sees his pearl, the symbol of a lost infant daughter, who has died to become a bride of Christ. She offers consolation for his grief, expounding the way of salvation and the place of human life in the divine order of things.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.
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