iris quotes

The moon is up, and yet it is not night; Sunset divides the sky with hera sea Of glory streams along the Alpine height Of blue Friuli's mountains; Heaven is free From clouds, but of all colours seems to be Melted to one vast Iris of the West, Where the day joins the past eternity.

-Rochdale
^18  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 4, stanza 27.

Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought Mosaic; underfoot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone Of costliest emblem: other creature here Beast, bird, insect, or worm durst enter none; Such was their awe of man.

-John Milton
  Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.4, l.698^705.

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast; In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove; In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

-Tennyson
  Poems,'Locksley Hall', l.17^20.