Jump to content

Incense

From Wikiquote
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand ~ Revelation, VIII, 3–5

Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be used as a simple deodorant or insect repellent.

Quotes

[edit]
  • Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
    • Song of Solomon, III, 6 (KJV)
  • And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
    And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
    And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
    • Revelation, VIII, 3–5 (KJV)
  • There were myrrh and cassia with frankincense smoking;
    • Sappho, Fragment 44. Andromache’s Wedding
    • George Allen, transl., The Atlantic Monthly (February 1937), p. 227
  • Come, Cnidian, Paphian Venus, come,
      Thy well-beloved Cyprus spurn,
    Haste, where for thee in Glycera's home
          Sweet odours burn.
    • Horace, Odes, I, 30. Ad Venerem
    • John Conington, transl., Odes and Carmen Sæculare (1863)
  • Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
    The gods themselves throw incense.
  • And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
    Where blossom’d many an incense-bearing tree;
  •   Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told
      His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
      Like pious incense from a censer old,
      Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,
    Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith.
  • No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
      From chain-swung censer teeming; ...
  • O blest unfabled Incense Tree,
    That burns in glorious Araby,
    With red scent chalicing the air,
    Till earth-life grow Elysian there!
  • Heap cassia, sandal-buds and stripes
      Of labdanum, and aloe-balls,
    Smear’d with dull nard an Indian wipes
      From out her hair: such balsam falls
      Down sea-side mountain pedestals,
    From tree-tops where tired winds are fain,
    Spent with the vast and howling main,
    To treasure half their island-gain.
    And strew faint sweetness from some old
      Egyptian’s fine worm-eaten shroud
    Which breaks to dust when once unroll’d;
      Or shredded perfume, like a cloud
      From closet long to quiet vow’d,
    With moth’d and dropping arras hung,
    Mouldering her lute and books among,
    As when a queen, long dead, was young.
  • A censer’s swing-chain set in her fair hands
    Dances up wreaths of intertwisted blue
    In clouds of fragrant frankincense and myrrh.
  • For the tune from thine altar hath sounded
      Since God bade the world's work begin,
    And the fume of thine incense abounded,
      To sweeten the sin.
  • And her hair fell about her in a dim clinging mist,
    Like smoke from a golden incense burned in Paradise.
  • No prayers or incense rose up in those hours
    Which grew to be years, and every day came mute
    Ghosts from the ovens, sifting through crisp air,
    And settled upon his eyes in a black soot.
    • Anthony Hecht, "More Light! More Light!"
    • Collected Earlier Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1990)
[edit]
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about: