Poems and Pearls
Long Time Companions

Poems and pearls go together like jam and bread.

Pink Pearls on Tower Handle by Kari

by Hafiz, Persian poet

Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe,
And store with pearls the wound that brings thee woe.

Concerning a pearl presented by Julius Caesar to Servilia, the mother of Brutus

The spoils of nations in an ear,
Changed to the treasure of a shell.

"Iliad", XIV, 183, by Homer in his description of Juno

In three bright drops,
Her glittering gems suspended from her ears.

"Odyssey", XVIII, 298

Earrings bright
With triple drops that cast a trembling light.

More poems and pearls...

Faithful Shpherdess (1611)

Orient pearls fit for a queen
Will I give thy love to win,
And a shell to keep them in.

"Edelstein und Perlen" by Ruckert

I was the Angel, who of old bowed down
From Heaven to earth and shed that tear, O Pearl,
From which thou wert frist-fashioned in thy shell.

To thee I gave that longing in thy shell,
Which guided thee and caused thee to escape,
O Pearl, from the bewitching sirens' song.

"Cleanness", an epic poem of Fourteenth Century

The pearl is praised wherever gems are seen,
though it be not the dearest by way of merchandise.
Why is the pearl so prized, save for its purity,
that wins praise for it above all white stones?
It shineth so bright; it is so round of shape;
without fault or stain; if it be truly a pearl.

Unknown

Ocean's gem, the purest
Of nature's works! What days of weary journeyings,
What sleepless nights, what toils on land and sea,
Are borne by men to gain thee!

More poems and pearls...

by Milton

Sea-girt isles,
That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep.

"Paradise Lost" by Milton

The wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,

"Jerusalem Delivered" by Tasso

The Islanders with fleecy curls,
Whose homes are compass'd by the Arabian waves;
By whom those shells which breed the orient pearls
Are dived and fish'd for in their green sea caves.