Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Ivy (Hedera Helix)
For ivy climbs the crumbling hall
To decorate decay.
Bailey—Festus. Sc. A Large Party and Entertainment.
That headlong ivy! not a leaf will grow
But thinking of a wreath,***
I like such ivy; bold to leap a height
’Twas strong to climb! as good to grow on graves
As twist about a thyrsus; pretty too
(And that’s not ill) when twisted round a comb.
E. B. Browning—Aurora Leigh. Bk. II.
Walls must get the weather stain
Before they grow the ivy.
E. B. Browning—Aurora Leigh. Bk. VIII.
The rugged trees are mingling
Their flowery sprays in love;
The ivy climbs the laurel
To clasp the boughs above.
Bryant—The Serenade.
As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone,
And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.
Cowper—The Progress of Error. L. 285.
Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green,
That creepeth o’er ruins old!
Of right choice food are his meals I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
****
Creeping where no life is seen,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.
Dickens—Pickwick. Ch. VI.
Direct
The clasping ivy where to climb.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 216.
On my velvet couch reclining,
Ivy leaves my brow entwining,
While my soul expands with glee,
What are kings and crowns to me?
Moore—Odes of Anacreon. Ode XLVIII.
Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken vine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.
Pope—The Dunciad. Bk. I. L. 303.
Round broken columns clasping ivy twin’d.
Pope—Windsor Forest. L. 69.
Where round some mould’ring tow’r pale ivy creeps,
And low-brow’d rocks hang nodding o’er the deeps.
Pope—Eloisa to Abelard. L. 243.