Marshall Tankersley

If there is one thing every human experiences though their life, it is loss. If one lives long enough, one will see family, friends, and associates pass away through the veil to the other side while one is left behind. It is understandable, then, that humanity would write about this feeling and attempt to work through their communal experiences. In the Medieval poem “The Pearl,” a father deals with his pain in losing his young daughter as well as coming to terms with the Christian hope for those who have passed on, and, in doing so, reminds the readers that the greatest hope one can have is not on this side of the Jordan.

The poem opens with the bereft father mourning the loss of his precious child. To him, she was a valuable and as spotless as a perfect pearl, and he feels as if she was lost to him because of forces beyond his control. Though he would have protected her as much as any parent can protect their offspring, nevertheless she was separated from him and lost to time. Ever since then, he has been vainly waiting and wishing that he could see some sign of her again, that he could in some way be reconnected to this love he has been bereft of. Then, one night, she comes to him in a dream. In this dream, she shows her father that, though she has passed on, what she has passed to is far, far greater. She tells him of her life in heaven (even going so far as to show him some of the things which she experiences) and how heaven is far greater and far more peaceful than life on the mortal side of the veil. The father awakens, still with the hole in his heart aching for his pearl yet also more rested because he knows she is in the hands of Christ Himself.

As one could easily infer from the title, the poem uses the metaphor of a pearl throughout:

I set her worth as truly rare.
I lost her in a garden where
Through grass she fell to earthen plot;
Wounded by love beyond repair
I mourn that pearl without a spot.

While one may be tempted to make the focus of the poem the pearl herself, the character in the poem who is most profoundly affected is in fact the narrating father. In these opening lines, we see that the father remains melancholy and in mourning for the loss of his daughter, and even blames himself for what has happened. The pearl was not stolen or taken by some kind of disaster, but rather the father writes that he lost her. He holds himself in some way to be responsible for her death, even through his inability to save her life. This state of mind is understandable. The father’s greatest responsibility is to protect his child, and when that child is hurt or dies, the father will hold himself responsible even when that is neither right nor healthy. Over the course of the poem, his interaction with the pearl and his realization of Who she is now in the care of releases this tension. As he awakes, he no longer mourns that he was unable, but rather glorifies the One Who is able:

‘O pearl,’ I cried, ‘of Heaven’s race,
I hold all dear that you did say
Within that vision full of grace;
If all be truth that you embrace
You dwell in raiment he requires
Happy am I in dungeon’s space,
That you are as the Prince desires.’

In understanding that the pearl is now in the presence of Christ Himself, the father need not berate himself for her loss any longer. She truly has gone to a better place than he can comprehend.

The pearl’s exposition of heaven and all its wonders too give hope to the father. While he will go the rest of his life aching for her and wishing she was there with him, he has hope that all will be well. Even though he would never have wished such a situation upon himself or his daughter, the end of the poem shows him resting upon strength not his own to trust in abilities not his own.

To please the Prince and him requite
Is easy for the Christian man
For I have found him day and night
A God, a Lord, who ever can
Upon this hill me guide aright
In pity for that pearl which ran
To God, who gives his gifts of right
And to Christ’s blessing which began
With bread and wine his mighty plan
The priest each day our souls inspires
To make us each God’s artisan,
Those precious pearls my Prince desires.

Even facing the grim abyss of death, the father still remembers that Christ is the One ultimately in control, and that even sad separation is not done out of malice. He trusts in his Prince and in all His ways, believing both that he will see his own pearl again when he passes on and that he is himself a pearl in Christ’s own eye. How can he not trust a Prince that promises him so much? The loss of his pearl is painful, but the hope that he finds in the Gospel is even greater. Though losing his daughter hurts him deeply, he can say with the Psalmist that “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”

While loss is the universal human experience, one need not allow it to define life. Yes, those one loves will die. But more importantly, one must look to Christ for hope just as the father in this poem has done. One may grieve, one may even feel a deep responsibility in that grieving, but one must never grieve without hope. Christ is a good Prince, a Prince Who has not and will not fail His people, and a Prince Who has promised that death itself is no longer the end of the story. One must always cast one’s eyes upon Him first, and rest in His promises that mourning will only last until the morning rises.