That kill the bloom before its time,

And blanch, without the owner's crime,

The most resplendent hair.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Lament of Mary Queen of Scots.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice, or add another hue

Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay;

And if in death still lovely, lovelier there;

Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 104.

Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies; and all

That shared its shelter perish in its fall.

William Pitt (1759-1806): The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. No. xxxvi.