Yew Quotes

• Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too!

  Matthew Arnold

  Rose, Quiet, Repose

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.236, Delphi Classics

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• Kuan Yew, I can never trust you as a politician.

  Tunku Abdul Rahman

  Never Trust, Politician, I Can

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• There are moments when Nature reveals the passion hidden beneath the careless calm of her ordinary moods-violent spring flashing white on almond-blossom through the purple clouds; a snowy, moonlit peak, with its single star, soaring up to the passionate blue; or against the flames of sunset, an old yew-tree standing dark guardian of some fiery secret.

  John Galsworthy

  Stars, Spring, Sunset

  John Galsworthy (2001). “The Forsyte Saga”, p.145, Wordsworth Editions

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• Never did tombs look so ghastly white. Never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funeral gloom. Never did tree or grass wave or rustle so ominously. Never did bough creak so mysteriously, and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a woeful presage through the night.

  Bram Stoker

  Dog, Night, White

  Bram Stoker (2016). “Dracula”, p.181, Zillmann Publishing

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• Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms over the sleepers.

  Oscar Wilde

  Stars, Flower, Moon

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.205, Wordsworth Editions

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• Much can they praise the trees so straight and high, The sailing pine,the cedar proud and tall, The vine-prop elm, the poplar never dry, The builder oak, sole king of forests all, The aspin good for staves, the cypress funeral, The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors And poets sage, the fir that weepest still, The yew obedient to the bender's will, The birch for shafts, the sallow for the mill, The myrrh sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound, The warlike beech, the ash for nothing ill, The fruitful olive, and the platane round, The carver holm, the maple seldom inward sound.

  Edmund Spenser

  Sweet, Kings, Funeral

  1590 The Faerie Queen, bk.1, canto 1, stanzas 8-9. plantan=plane tree; holme=holly.

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• I had a good personal relationship with Lee Kuan Yew and I used him, in the sense, that he... He made a statement in 1980, and he said in that statement that, "If Australia keeps going the way it is, it will finish up the poor, white trash of Asia." And he was right, because we were just going backwards.

  Bob Hawke

  White, Australia, Way

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

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• For there no yew nor cypress spread their glom But roses blossom'd each rustic tomb.

  Thomas Campbell

  Rose, Cypresses, Rustic

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• The Pacific Yew can be cut down and processed to produce a potent chemical, taxol, which offers some promise of curing certain forms of lung, breast and ovarian cancer in patients who would otherwise quickly die... It seems an easy choice - sacrifice the tree for a human life - until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each patient treated.

  Al Gore

  Cancer, Cutting, Sacrifice

  Al Gore (2013). “Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose”, p.119, Routledge

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• My silks and fine array, My smiles and languished air, By love are driv'n away And mournful lean Despair Brings me yew to deck my grave: Such end true lovers have.

  William Blake

  Love, Air, My Smile

  William Blake (2008). “The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake”, p.413, Univ of California Press

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• All green was anished sae of pine and yew, That still displayed their melancholy hue; Sae the green holly with its berries red, And the green moss that o'er the grael spread.

  George Crabbe

  Hollies, Moss, Berries

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• I shall also take you forth and carve our names together in a yew tree, haloed with stars.

  Ted Hughes

  Stars, Names, Tree

  Ted Hughes (2011). “Letters of Ted Hughes”, p.6, Faber & Faber

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• Jenk shook his head as he headed for the rental car counter. He felt his shoulders tightening as he walked away, certain that Izzy wasn't quite ready to be silent or invisible yet. He was halfway there when Izzy shouted, "Jenkins! I wish I could quit yew!" Of course. The obligatory Brokeback Mountain reference. Jenk flipped Zanella a double bird without bothering to look back.

  Suzanne Brockmann

  Halfway There, Car, Bird

  Suzanne Brockmann (2013). “Into the Storm: Troubleshooters 10: Troubleshooters 10”, p.311, Hachette UK

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• Reptilian green the wrinkled throat,
  Green as a bough of yew the beard;
  He bent his head, and so I smote

  Yvor Winters

  Green, Beard, Bent

  Yvor Winters (1960). “Collected poems”

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• Come away, come away, Death, And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath, I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white stuck all with yew, O prepare it! My part of death no one so true did share it. Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On my black coffin let there be strewn: Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown. A thousand thousand sighs to save, lay me O where Sad true lover never find my grave, to weep there!

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Flower, White

  'Twelfth Night' (1601) act 2, sc. 4, l. 51

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