227 
THE IVY. 
HEDERA HELIX. 
“ Oh ! how could Fancy crown with thee, 
In ancient days, the god of wine, 
And bid thee at the banquet be, 
Companion of the vine? 
Thy home, wild plant, is where each sound 
Of revelry hath long been o’er, 
Where song’s full notes once peal’d around, 
But now arc heard no more.” 
We may indeed wonder, with the writer of these sweet 
lines, that the ivy should be desecrated to such unhal¬ 
lowed purposes. Besides the consideration of its usual 
haunts, there is something so sombre in its appear¬ 
ance as makes it seem but little akin to revelry. One 
might almost imagine that in wreathing the goblet with 
its graceful branches, garnished with handsome but 
poisonous berries, it was designed to point a moral by 
alluding to “ the sweet poison of misused wine.” 
We are indebted to the ivy for the picturesque 
beauty it throws around every object to which it at- 
Q 2 
