But pleasures are like poppies spread,

You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;

Or, like the snow-fall in the river,

A moment white, then melts forever.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Tam o' Shanter.

A soul as white as heaven.

Beaumont And Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy. Act iv. Sc. 1.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.

Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars,

White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 474.

When Freedom from her mountain-height

Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And set the stars of glory there.

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes

The milky baldric of the skies,

And striped its pure, celestial white

With streakings of the morning light.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home!

By angel hands to valour given!

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.

Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,

With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820): The American Flag.

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,

Stains the white radiance of eternity.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Adonais. lii.

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good

Compensate bad in man, absolve him so:

Life's business being just the terrible choice.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 1236.

And finds, with keen, discriminating sight,

Black's not so black,—nor white so very white.

George Canning (1770-1827): New Morality.

Stabbed with a white wench's black eye.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Every white will have its blacke,

And every sweet its soure.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): Reliques of Ancient Poetry. Sir Cauline.

They may seize

On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand

And steal immortal blessing from her lips,

Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,

Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.

O welcome, pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,

Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings!

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 213.

Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch

At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb;

Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch

Till the white-wing'd reapers come!

Henry Vaughan (1621-1695): The Seed growing secretly.