Poetry

The Pearl (Annotated)

Enriched Edition. A Middle English Poem, A Modern Version in the Metre of the OriginalBy Sophie Jewett

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Length1h 15m

About this audiobook

Sophie Jewett's The Pearl is a graceful modern English rendering of the fourteenth-century Middle English dream vision usually attributed to the anonymous "Pearl-poet." The poem follows a grieving speaker who, mourning a lost "pearl," enters a visionary landscape and encounters a radiant maiden whose wisdom transforms private sorrow into theological consolation. Jewett preserves the work's devotional intensity, symbolic architecture, and lyric delicacy, situating it within the rich medieval tradition of allegory, elegy, and Christian vision literature. Jewett, an American poet, translator, and professor at Wellesley College, brought to this undertaking both literary sensitivity and scholarly discipline. Her own poetic practice, marked by musical restraint and spiritual seriousness, made her especially responsive to the medieval poem's fusion of grief, beauty, and doctrine. As a woman of letters working at the turn of the twentieth century, she helped make early English literature accessible to modern readers without reducing its strangeness or grandeur. This volume is warmly recommended to readers of medieval literature, religious poetry, and refined translation. It offers an inviting path into one of England's greatest early poems, while retaining the emotional depth and contemplative power that have made The Pearl enduringly luminous. This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

Poetic Grief Identity Folklore Mythological World