Here you will find thePoemWritten at the Request of a Gentleman to Whom a Lady Had Given a Sprig of Myrtleof poet Samuel Johnson
What hopes - what terrors does this gift create? Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate. The myrtle (ensign of supreme command Consign'd to Venus by Melissa's hand), Not less capricious than a reigning fair, Oft favours, oft rejects a lover's prayer. In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain: The myrtle crowns the happy lover's heads, The unhappy lovers' graves the myrtle spreads. Oh! then the meaning of thy gift impart, And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart: Soon must this sprig, as you shall fix its doom, Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb.
