But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot, ’twixt high and nether Jove,
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles
That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep;
Which he, to grace his tributary gods,
By course commits to several government,
And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns
And wield their little tridents.
John Milton, Comus (1634), extract from opening lines
Diving for Pearls 