What hopes - what terrors does this gift create? <br />Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate. <br />The myrtle (ensign of supreme command <br />Consign'd to Venus by Melissa's hand), <br />Not less capricious than a reigning fair, <br />Oft favours, oft rejects a lover's prayer. <br />In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain: <br />The myrtle crowns the happy lover's heads, <br />The unhappy lovers' graves the myrtle spreads. <br />Oh! then the meaning of thy gift impart, <br />And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart: <br />Soon must this sprig, as you shall fix its doom, <br />Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb.<br /><br />Samuel Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/written-at-the-request-of-a-gentleman-to-whom-a-lady-had-given-a-sprig-of-myrtle/
