Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl.
In his "Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester," a couplet shows that he was familiar with the superstition of sorrow connected with them:
And those pearls of dew she wears,
Proove to be presaging tears.
Herrick also associated pearls and tears though more happily as in "Corinna's Maying."
Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept.
The same poet makes charming reference to pearls in his poem entitled: "To Daffodils."
Or as the pearls of morning dew
Ne'er to be found again.