The wreath was originally worn during religious rites in ancient Persia. The Greeks called them a 'diadem', meaning bound around. Wreath comes from the old English 'writhen', meaning to twist or writhe.
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Bacchante
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Bacchus Triumphant
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Bacchus, a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation,
especially known as a god of wine and ecstasy.
His personal attributes include the ivy wreath.
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The Priestess of Bacchus
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Music, Heavenly Maid
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When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung.
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William Collins
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The Laurel Wreath
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Faded Laurels
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The Laurel Wreath a trophy long associated with the spirit and inspiration of poetry. The Greeks would crown their poets with laurel and put the leaves under their pillows at night to fire their imaginations.
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Ophelia
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The Poppy is used to symbolize
eternal sleep, oblivion, and death.
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Ophelia
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The Nymph - Now Again She Flies Aloof
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Ivy is also associated with resurrection and rebirth.
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Death the Bride
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Now these are poppies in her locks,
White poppies she must wear;
Must wear a veil to shroud her face
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BRIDE SONG
Christina Rossetti
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Perdita
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Dionysia
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The Painful and Glorious Crown
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Parts of ancient Greece had a custom
of crowning their brides
with a wreath of thorny asparagus.
Apparently, it was a fragrant plant
that encouraged the groom to be patient with his intended.
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A Forerunner
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John the Baptist
" was clothed with dromedary's hair
and with a girdle of a skin about his loins".
A camel hair wreath, perhaps?
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Ophelia
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Girl with Tambourine
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Daydream
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The bride she wears a white, white rose---the plucking it was mine;
The poet wears a laurel wreath---and I the laurel twine;
And O, the child, your little child,that's cling close to you,
It laughs to wear my violets---they are so sweet and blue!
And I, I have a wreath to wear---ah, never rue or thorn!
I sometimes think that bitter wreath could be more sweetly worn!
For mine is made of ghostly bloom, of what I can't forget-
The fallen leaves of other crowns----rose, laurel, violet!
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SONG
Anderson
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Day
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The Wood Nymph
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A Sea Spell
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Apple Blossom symbolize temptation.
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Her lute hangs shadowed in the apple-tree,
While flashing fingers weave the sweet-strung spell
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A SEA SPELL
Dante Rossetti
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Ianthe
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A girl so lovely that,
upon her death,
the Gods caused Ianthe
to grow on her grave.
Ianthe means "violet flower".
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Spring Maiden
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An Angel
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Young Girl with a Garland of Marguerites
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Zephyrus wooing Flora
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Violets and leaves of vine,
Into a frail, fair wreath
We gather and entwine:
A wreath for Love to wear,
Fragrant as his own breath,
To crown his brow divine,
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A CORONAL
Dowson
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Viviane and Merlin in a Forest
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Sketch for Medea
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The Lyre of Orpheus
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Florence
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Since antiquity, laurel has been associated with victory.
Its association began with the Pythian games,
which were sacred to Apollo.
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