John Greenleaf Whittier describes the bravery of the fictional title character in his poem “Barbara Frietchie” (1863) who said, “Shoot, if you must, this old gray head”.
The aged Frietchie displays a Union flag when Confederate troops march by.
Stonewall Jackson forbids his troops to harm the old woman.
Robert Burns wrote “O, my luve’s like a red, red rose/That’s newly sprung in June” in “A Red, Red Rose” (1796).
Gloriana was the name of the Faerie Queene in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1590-96).
The Trojan priest Laocoon who was killed by sea serpents is a character in Vergil’s Aeneid (c. 19 B.C.).
The epigraph for Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo is “So foul a sky clears not without a storm” (Shakespeare).
The last poem of Lyrical Ballads is Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.”
The title of O. Henry’s short story collection The Four Million refers to two things: it represents the population of New York City at the time, and it is an answer to Ward McAllister, who said “there are only about 400 people in New York society.” The collection contains the 1902 story, “The Gift of…