Jewett, Sophie / 2008-06-16 00:00:00

EBOOK THE PEARL ***


Produced by David Starner, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreaders Team


THE PEARL

A MIDDLE ENGLISH POEM

A MODERN VERSION IN THE METRE OF THE ORIGINAL
BY
SOPHIE JEWETT
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE

1908

To KATHARINE LEE BATES
THE TRANSLATOR TO THE AUTHOR
Poet of beauty, pardon me
If touch of mine have tarnished
Thy Pearl's pure luster, loved by thee;
Or dimmed thy vision of the dead
Alive in light and gaiety.
Thy life is like a shadow fled;
Thy place we know not nor degree,
The stock that bore thee, school that bred;
Yet shall thy fame be sung and said.
Poet of wonder, pain, and peace,
Hold high thy nameless, laurelled head
Where Dante dwells with Beatrice.


PREFACE
Among the treasures of the British Museum is a manuscript which
contains four anonymous poems, apparently of common authorship: "The
Pearl," "Cleanness," "Patience," "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight."
From the language of the writer, it seems clear that he was a native
of some Northwestern district of England, and that he lived in the
second half of the Fourteenth Century.
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