Myrtle

Myrtle may refer to the family Myrtaceae, the genus Myrtus, or the species Myrtus communis.

Quotes

• Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
  • Isaiah 55:13 (KJV)

• Nor myrtle—which means chiefly love: and love
  Is something awful which one dare not touch
  So early o' mornings.
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), bk. II

• Julia will her Manlius wed,
  Good with good, a blessed bed:
  Like a myrtle tree in flower,
  Taken from an Asian bower,
  Where with many a dewy cup
  Nymphs in play had nursed it up.
  • Catullus 61, as translated by Leigh Hunt, The Examiner (12 May 1816)
  • Cp. Samuel Sheppard, "Epithalamium", The Loves of Amandus and Sophronia (1650)

• The myrtle (ensign of supreme command,
  Consigned by Venus to Melissa's hand)
  Not less capricious than a reigning fair,
  Oft favors, oft rejects a lover's prayer;
  In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
  In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain.
  • Samuel Johnson, "Written at the Request of a Gentleman", l. 3; The Gentleman's Magazine (April 1779), p. 206

• Dark-green and gemm'd with flowers of snow,
    With close uncrowded branches spread
  Not proudly high, nor meanly low,
    A graceful myrtle rear'd its head.
  • James Montgomery, "The Myrtle", st. 1, The Gentleman's Magazine (January 1839), p. 59

• While the myrtle, now idly entwin'd with his crown,
  Like the wreath of Harmodius, shall cover his sword.
  • Thomas Moore, "O, Blame Not The Bard", st. 3, Memoirs (1800), p. 209

• For Adoration myrtles stay
  To keep the garden from dismay,
  And bless the sight from dearth.
  • Christopher Smart, A Song to David (1763)