speaking of the tardiness of the spring, he writes: "Slow grows the palm, too slow the pearl."
Evidently
he knew of the slow process by which the successive coats of filmy
nacre increase the size of the growing gem. Likewise a couplet in "
Nature " betrays the poet's observation of the iridescent nature of
the colors in mother-of-pearl, and in the gem occasionally when those
fleeting tints are added to the beauty of its luster; the lines are a
dainty illustration :
Illusions like the tints of pearl, Or changing colors of the sky.
Some
of the great poets, notably Tennyson, apparently confuse the gem with
its mother-of-pearl, or refer to the latter only when they speak of
pearl. . In his "Recollections of the Arabian ' Nights," however,
Tennyson in describing one of his beauties evidently refers to the gem:
And a brow of pearl Tressed with redolent ebony.
Writing of the mermaid, the lines are more
suggestive of the shell nacre:
Combing her hair Under the sea, In a golden curl With a comb of pearl.
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