lap quotes

   He spoke, and loosed our heart in tears. He laid us as we lay at birth 31 On the cool flowery lap of earth.

- Matthew Arnold
  Of  William Wordsworth. Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'Memorial Verses,  April1850', l.47^9.

Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid.

-Thomas Gray
  Of  William Shakespeare. The Progress of Poesy, l.83^4.

Ye valleys low where the mild whispers use, Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes, That on the green turf such the honeyed showers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.

-John Milton
  Lycidas, l.136^41.

So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature: This is old age; but then thou must outlive Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change To withered weak and grey.

-John Milton
  Michael to  Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.11, l.535^40.