Yew.... Sorrow. 
The Yew is among all nations an emblem of sorrow. 
Its bare trunk, and dark foliage, with which its fruit, 
looking like drops of blood, stands in harsh contrast, 
excite in us a sort of aversion. Persons who sleep 
under a Yew tree are liable to be seized with dizziness, 
heaviness, and violent headache. Its juice is poisonous, 
and the tree exhausts the soil which supports it, and 
destroys all other plants which spring up beneath it. 
The Yew was planted in old English burying-grounds, 
and its wood was commonly employed for making bows 
and arrows before the introduction of fire-arms. The 
Greeks, impressed with the melancholy aspect of this 
tree, invented the fable of the unhappy Smilax; who, 
seeing that her love was rejected by young Crocus, was 
transformed into a Yew. 
Who that hath ever been, 
Could bear to be no more ? 
Yet who would tread again the scene 
He trod through life before ? 
Montgomery. 
Griets of mine own lie heavy in my breast; 
Which thou wilt propagate, to have them prest 
W ith more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, 
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. 
Shakspeare. 
