Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale gessamine, The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well attir'd woodbine, With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears: Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

-Milton,John
  Lycidas, l.142^51. rathe = early.

   I have a horror of the word 'flesh', which has become so shopworn.Why not 'meat'whilethey're about it? What I like is skin, a young girl's skin that is pink and shows that she has a good circulation.

-Renoir, Pierre Auguste
Quoted inJean Renoir Renoir, My Father (translated by R and D Weaver,1962).

Bring hither the pink and purple columbine, With gillyflowers: Bring coronation, and sops in wine, Worn of paramours. Strew me the ground with daffadowndillies, And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies.

-Spenser, Edmund
  The Shepherd's Calendar,'April', l.136^41.

The Red Cow was very respectable, shealways behaved like a perfect lady and she knew What was What. To her a thing was either black or whiteöthere was no question of it being grey or perhaps pink. People were good or they were badöthere was nothing in between. Dandelions were either sweet or souröthere were never any moderately nice ones.

-Travers, P(amela) L(yndon)
  Mary Poppins, ch.5.