Venom

[…] There may be in the cup / A spider steep’d, and one may drink, depart, / And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge / Is not infected...

And from the Boughs brush off the evil dew, / And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew, / Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites, / Or hurtfull Worm with canker’d venom bites […]

I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.

The serious artist […] [is] obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.

Venom evolved from saliva and it's used primarily for catching and digesting prey.

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, / Have lost their quality, and that this day / Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

[…] as I was feasting my jaundiced eye one morning with a certain newspaper, which I was in the habit of employing as the vehicle of my venom, I was startled at discovering myself conspicuously pointed out in an angry column as a cowardly defamer […]

My daughter […] has no occasion to dispute the identity of your person; the venom of your present language is sufficient to remind her that she speaks with the mortal enemy of her father.

History is a study which has none of the venom of reality in it.

The attack was so unwarranted and delivered with such venom that his unpreparedness for it left him speechless.

Some of these reviews were written in joyous zeal. Others with glee. Some in sorrow, some in anger, and a precious few with venom, of which I have a closely guarded supply.

1566, Thomas Blundeville (translator and editor), The Fower Chiefyst Offices Belongyng to Horsemanshippe, London, Chapter 36, […] washe all the filth away with warme water, and annoynte the place with Hony and Fytch flower myngled together. But beware you touche none of the kirnelles with your bare finger, for feare of venoming the place, which is very apt for a Fistula to breede in.

Let’s leave the hermit pity with our mothers, / And when we have our armours buckled on, / The venom’d vengeance ride upon our swords, / Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.

The Dragon is a venemous beast, and poisoneth all where he lieth; he beats the Earth bare, and venoms it, that it will bear no grass […]

Our Fountains too a dire Infection yield, For Crowds of Vipers creep along the Field, And with polluted Gore, and baneful Steams, Taint all the Lakes, and venom all the Streams.

Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? / Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests? / Or toads infect fair founts with venom mud?

[…] it is stopp’d with other flattering sounds, / As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, / Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound / The open ear of youth doth always listen;