of
the great and in the mouth of beauty, for in "The Singing Leaves" he
makes the King's eldest daughter ask of her royal father when he
journeys:
O, bring me pearls and diamonds great,
and in " A Fable for Critics " he says:
Your goddess of freedom, a tight, buxom girl, With lips like a cherry and teeth like a pearl.
Bryant does not often allude to'pearls, but in
two instances, both in "The Flood of Years,"
they appear in beautiful setting. In the first:
A beam like that of moonlight turns the spray To glistening pearls.
Later on, describing the ocean of the past, he sees—
Dim glimmerings of lost jewels, far within The sleeping waters, diamond, sardonyx, Ruby and topaz, pearl and chrysolite.
The
general use of pearls in the barbaric splendor of the great in the days
of Rome and Egypt and Persia, appears in Tasso's " Jerusalem
Delivered." In the wizard's dwelling:
Nor failed there urns of crystal, pearl, and gold,
and,
High on the Soldan's helm, in scales of pearl A rampant dragon grinn'd malignant things;
and also,
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