The poem may be divided into three parts...

The poem may be divided into three parts: an introduction, a dialog between the two main characters in which the Pearl instructs the narrator, and a description of the New Jerusalem with the narrator's awakening. The narrator, upset at the loss of his Pearl, falls asleep and begins to dream. In his dream he is transported to a garden. Wandering by the side of a beautiful stream, he becomes convinced paradise is on the other shore. He sees a young maid whom he identifies as his Pearl.

When he asks whether she is the pearl he has lost, she tells him he has lost nothing, that his pearl is merely a rose which has naturally withered. He wants to cross to her side, but she says it is not so easy, that he must resign himself to the will and mercy of God. He objects to the idea that God rewards every man equally, regardless of his apparent due. She responds that God gives the same gift of Christ's redemption to all.

She instructs him on several aspects of sin, repentance, grace and salvation. She describes the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem. She advises him to forsake all and buy this pearl. He asks about the heavenly Jerusalem; she tells him it is the city of God. He asks to go there; she says that God forbids that, but he may see it by a special dispensation. They walk upstream, and he sees the city across the stream, which is described in a paraphrase of the Apocalypse.

He also sees a procession of the blessed. Plunging into the river in his desperation to cross, he awakes from the dream back and resolves to fulfill the will of God. Previous…