In "Arethusa" he uses them to enhance the idea of regal magnificence in these lines:
Where the Ocean Powers Sit on their pearlfid thrones.
The
poets rarely refer to the gem as a symbol of spiritual attributes
though it is peculiarly adapted by its natural qualities to illustrate
purity, innocence, and other qualities of the human soul: nor is it
often connected with religious ideas. Among the few, Andrew Marvell in
his "Song of the Emigrants in Burmuda," avails himself of it somewhat
prosaically thus,
He cast (of which we rather boast) The Gospel's pearl upon our coast.
One
of the most poetically beautiful references ever made to the Ocean's
modest jewel occurs in the "The Rosary" by Robert Cameron Rogers.
The hours I spend with thee, dear heart,
Are as a string of pearls to me; I count them over every one apart,
My rosary. Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer,
To still a heart in absence wrung; I tell each bead unto the end, and there A cross is hung.
