Lytle hwile leof beoth grene thonne hie eft fealewiath, feallath on eorthan and forweorniath weorthiath to duste. For a little while the leaves are green. Then they turn yellow, fall to the ground, and perish, turning to dust.

-Anonymous
c.900  Second Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn, l.136^8.

   The rose is red, the leaves are green, God save Elizabeth, our noble queen.

-Anonymous
 Lines written by a Westminster schoolboy in the margin of his copy of Julius Caesar. Quoted in P  W Hasler (ed)  The House of Commons,1558^1603 (vol.1), p.474.

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands, O where hae ye been? They hae slain the Earl of Murray And laid him on the green.

-Ballads
'The Bonnie Earl of Murray', stanza1.

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A chapel was built in the midst Where I used to play on the green.

-Blake,William
  Songs of Experience,'The Garden of Love'.

The dusty catastrophe of Asia.Green only on the banner of the Prophet. Nothing grows here except mustaches.

-Brodsky, Ioseph
  Less Than One,'Flight From Byzantium'.

   Make it a green peace.

-Darnell, Bill
  Quoted in Robert Hunter Warriors of the Rainbow (1979).

She wore a frock of frolic green.

-Drayton, Michael
  Idea, the Shepherd's Garland,'The Eighth Eclogue'.

Beneath the strain of expectation even the little iced sugar cakes upon the tea-table looked green with worry.

-Firbank, (ArthurAnnesley) Ronald
  The Flower Beneath the Foot, ch.3.

   Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedesbeforeus.It eludedusthen, but that's no matteröto-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further† And one fine morning† So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

-Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott Key
  The Great Gatsby, ch.9.

What use the green river, the gold place, if time and death pinned human in the pocket of my land not rest from taking underground the green all-willowed and white rose and bean flower and morning-mist picnic of song in pepper-pot breast of thrush?

-Frame,Janet Paterson also known as Jean PatersonFrame
Owls Do Cry, pt.1, ch.4.

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

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

Don't be surprised, If I demur, for, be advised, My passport's green. No glass of ours was ever raised To toastThe Queen.

-Heaney, SeamusJustin
  'An Open Letter to Blake and  Andrew, Editors, Contemporary British Verse, Penguin Books, Middlesex'. Heaney was complaining at his inclusion in the book edited by Blake Morrison and  Andrew Motion on the grounds of his Irish nationality.

Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento.Verdes ramas. El barco sobre la mar y el caballo en la montan‹  a. Green how I love you green. Green wind.Green boughs. The ship on the sea and the horse on the mountain.

-Lorca, Federico Garc|¤  a
^7  Romance sona¤  mbulo.

Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green shade.

-Marvell, Andrew
c.1650^1652  'The Garden' (published1681), stanza 6.

And missing thee, I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven green, To behold the wandering moon, Riding near her highest noon, Like one that had been led astray Through the heaven's wide pathless way; And oft as if her head she bowed, Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

-Milton,John
c.1631 Il Penseroso, l.65^72.

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen Within thy airy shell By slow meander's margent green, And in the violet-embroidered vale.

-Milton,John
  Comus,  A Mask, l.230^3.

But now my task is smoothly done, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend, And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the Moon.

-Milton,John
  Comus,  A Mask, l.1011^16.

  Fair and fair, and twice so fair, As fair as any may be; The fairest shepherd on our green, A love for any lady.

-Peele, George
  TheArraignment of Paris, act1, sc.5.

We will watch the sun set againömany times, and perhaps we'll see the Emerald Drop, the green flash that brings good fortune.

-Rhys,Jean pseudonym of  Ellen Gwendolen Rees Williams
  Wide Sargasso Sea, pt.2.

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stop- light. The truly wise person is colour-blind.

-Schweitzer, Albert
  Quoted in CBS News tribute,14 Jan. US film director.With films such asTaxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull   (1980),   he   established  himself   as   one   of   the   foremost directors of his generation.