Say It With Flowers

 

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I first saw daffodils in William Wordsworth’s poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’  as a word. I still remember the peacefulness and bliss I had after that first reading. Such sensitive and delicate little beings they were! Spreading joy was their only job, in the poem, I felt.

 I always rejoice reading Robert Burns’ poem, ‘A Red, Red Rose’  that has lines like this:

‘Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear

      And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear,

     While the sands o’ life shall run’.

Yet I can never forget those white flowers Wilfred Owen speaks of in his poem ‘The Send Off’ :   

‘Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way

To the siding-shed,

And lined the train with faces grimly gay.’

 

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray

As men's are, dead.

 

I began this prompt with Wordsworth’s daffodils though I haven’t seen one in reality. I hope to see them someday. But I have seen tulips in the tulip garden of Srinagar in our State of Jammu & Kashmir. Mesmerizing is the only word to describe this beauty of myriad hues. And then I sit face to face with Sylvia Plath’s Tulips.

Wow! I never knew tulips were such loud flowers! The link is given; please read it if you haven’t already read it.

 Flowers speak the language of heart as well as the language of politics. The Fist and Rose is an emblem used or formerly used by a number of socialist or social democratic parties around the world. Nearly every sentiment imaginable can be expressed with flowers. The Victorian society bound by strict etiquette enjoyed the opportunity for floral communication. People used flowers to flirt and send secret messages. So Yellow Acacia was there for secret love.

 One is amazed at the number of floral terms given to aesthetic arrangement of cut flowers highlighting their beauty.

 I generally desire the flowers to be with their mother plant and die a natural death yet I offered a lotus to my parents’ photos each on their birthdays.

 How does a flower speak to you?

 

Please link one poem that is your response to the material of this prompt. When you link your poem please visit other links in the spirit of the community