He is quite unknown, save as
his work reveals him, a man of aristocratic breeding, of religious and
secular education, of a deeply emotional and spiritual nature, gifted
with imagination and perception of beauty. He shows a liking for
technique that leads him to adopt elaborate devices of rhyme, while
retaining the alliteration characteristic of Northern Middle English
verse. He wrote as was the fashion of his time, allegory, homily,
lament, chivalric romance, but the distinction of his poetry is that
of a finely accentuated individuality.
The poems called "Cleanness" and "Patience," retell incidents of
biblical history for a definitely didactic purpose, but even these are
frequently lifted into the region of imaginative literature by the
author's power of graphic description. "Sir Gawayne and the Green
Knight" is a priceless contribution to Arthurian story. "The Pearl,"
though it takes the form of symbolic narrative, is essentially lyric
and elegiac, the lament, it would seem, of a father for a little,
long-lost daughter.
The present translation of "The Pearl" was begun with no larger design
than that of turning a few passages into modern English, by way of
illustrating to a group of students engaged in reading the original,
the possibility of preserving intricate stanzaic form, and something
of alliteration, without an entire sacrifice of poetic beauty.
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