The Pearl
()
About this ebook
Related to The Pearl
Related ebooks
The Pearl: A Middle English Poem, A Modern Version in the Metre of the Original Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevereux — Volume 06 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden Treasury: Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomance, Vision and Satire (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): English Alliterative Poems of the Fourteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arabian Nights: Tales of Thousand Nights and a Night: Volume 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poetry Hour - Volume 11: Time For The Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Metabolism of Desire: The Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEpitaphs for Country Churchyards Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEyes of Youth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prelude - An Autobiographical Poem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSword Blades and Poppy Seed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden Treasury Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sonnets of Dusk and Dawn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden Treasury Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaurus Nobilis - Chapters on Art and Life: With a Dedication by Amy Levy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arabian Nights: Tales of Thousand Nights and a Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coming of the Princess, and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChilde Harold's Pilgrimage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Acanthus and Wild Grape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Shropshire Lad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prelude, The Recluse & The Excursion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pilgrims of the Rhine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDramatis Personæ: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKeats: 'Ode to a Nightingale' and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArabian Nights: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Arabian Nights Volume One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Poetry For You
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pillow Thoughts II: Healing the Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things We Don't Talk About Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Better Be Lightning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Favorite Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waste Land and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDream Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Carrying: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Pearl
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Pearl - Sophie Jewett
Sophie Jewett
The Pearl
Sharp Ink Publishing
2023
Contact: info@sharpinkbooks.com
ISBN 978-80-283-2971-6
Table of Contents
PREFACE
THE PEARL
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
PREFACE
Table of Contents
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. 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. The experiment was persisted in because its problems are such as baffle and fascinate a translator, and the finished version is offered not merely to students of Middle English but to college classes in the history of English literature, and to non-academic readers.
If The Pearl
presented no greater obstacle to a modern reader than is offered by Chaucer's English, a translation might be a gratuitous task, but the Northwest-Midland dialect of the poem is, in fact, incomparably more difficult than the diction of Chaucer, more difficult even than that of Langland. The meaning of many passages remains obscure, and a translator is often forced to choose what seems the least dubious among doubtful readings.
The poem in the original passes frequently from imaginative beauty to conversational commonplace, from deep feeling