 thumb|pearl, miniature from cotton nero a.x. the dreamer stands on the other side of the stream from the pearl-maiden. pearl (middle english: perle) is a late 14th-century middle english poem by an unknown author. with elements of medieval allegory and dream vision genre, the poem is written in a north-west midlands variety of middle english and highlyâthough not consistentlyâalliterative; there is a complex system of stanza linking and other stylistic features. a father, mourning the loss of his "perle [pearl]", falls asleep in a garden; in his dream he encounters the 'pearl-maiden'âa beautiful and heavenly womanâstanding across a stream in a strange landscape. in response to his questioning and attempts to obtain her, she answers with christian doctrine. eventually she shows him an image of the heavenly city, and herself as part of the retinue of christ the lamb. when the dreamer attempts to cross the stream, he awakens suddenly from his dream and reflects on its significance. the poem survives in a single manuscript, the cotton nero a.x, which includes two other religious narrative poems: patience, and cleanness, and the romance sir gawain and the green knight. all are thought to be by the same author, dubbed the "pearl poet" or "gawain poet", on the evidence of stylistic and thematic similarities. ==author==  though the real name of "the pearl poet" (or poets) is unknown, some inferences about him/her can be drawn from an informed reading of his/her works. the original manuscript is known in academic circles as cotton nero a.x, following a naming system used by one of its owners, robert cotton, a collector of medieval english texts. before the manuscript came into cotton's possession, it was in the library of henry savile of bank in yorkshire. little is known about its previous ownership, and until 1824, when the manuscript was introduced to the academic community in a second edition of thomas warton's history edited by richard price, it was almost entirely unknown.turville-petre, thorlac. the alliterative revival. woodbridge: brewer etc., 1977. pp.&nbsp;126â129. isbn 0-85991-019-9burrow, j. ricardian p
14th-century_poems Christian_poetry Cotton_Library Middle_English_poems Visionary_poems