“LAURUS NOBILIS” retells the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne, written from Daphne’s lyrical point of view. The nymph turns into a laurel tree because she would not yield to Apollo’s ardour, due to Cupid’s vengeful arrows of love and apathy aimed at the youthful god and the nymph, respectively. The standard version of the myth can be found in “Metamorphoses” by the Roman poet Ovid (8th century CE), in which Ovid portrayed Apollo as a longing young man who is forever suffering the throes of passion and Daphne as a beautiful maiden, rejecting Apollo’s amorous advances. Terrified at the prospect of losing her chastity, the young maiden is crying out to the heavens and asking to be rescued from her tormentor. Answering her prayers, her father, the River god Peneus, turns her into a laurel tree at the moment when Apollo touches her. In addition to an account of how Apollo pursues Daphne, the narrative also explains that the laurel tree is forever thereafter regarded with reverence by Apollo as the sacred memory of Daphne.

In “LAURUS NOBILIS,” Daphne is not contemptuous or disdainful towards Apollo, rather poetically “inpouring grace” into his heart with sensitivity and tenderness. The nymph seems to want to reason with Apollo that the greatest love is never returned and that he ought to depart from the usual path that men seem to follow, such as complex feelings of pain, sadness, fear, anger, and wounded pride. Throughout the song, Daphne articulates why she is unwilling to satisfy Apollo’s amorous desires and encourages the god Apollo to find solace in listening to the rustling laurel leaves, in times of an elegiac lament for his unrequited love.—Diana Guber, “Tears of Daphne,” 2022.