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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
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Title: The Pearl
Author: Sophie Jewett
Release Date: August 18, 2004 [EBook #13211]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
- START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG 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 tarnishèd
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 Knig