PEARLS IN LITERATURE
No
poet has made more frequent allusion to pearls than Thomas Moore. His
poems give evidence that he had read much of them in ancient writings
and was alive to their poetic value. In his description of Ireland in
"Fairest! Put on Awhile," the lines—
Lakes, where the pearl lies hid,
And caves, where the gem is sleeping,
were
founded on the statements of Nennius, a British writer of the IXth
century, concerning Irish pearls. In passing, it is worthy of notice
that Nennius recorded also that the princes of Ireland hung them behind
their ears; a fashion similar to that of Persian and Athenian youth
many centuries earlier. From Cardanus, Moore learned of the ancient
fable that pearls were improved by leaving them awhile with doves, and
utilizes the fancy in "A Dream of Antiquity" thus:
'As pearls,'we're told, that fondling doves Have played with, wear a smoother whiteness.
An early reference to the gem is found in his "Odes of Anacreon" No. XXII:
Or even those envious pearls that show So faintly round that neck of snow------
