The Violet Book (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | Willis Boyd Allen | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

Next to the rose, whose divine right to monarchy cannot be questioned, the violet is the poet's flower. No other is mentioned so frequently, or with such affection. It is impossible to say when this familiar flower first blossomed in literature. The "Odyssey" would not be complete without it, nor would the "Eclogues" of the Roman singer, Virgil. Ovid was fond of horticulture, and the violet was not forgotten when the bard was inditing his smooth-flowing hexameters. Pliny and Cicero, too, were violet-lovers. In the Bible there is no mention of the flower; but in Chrysostom's "First Homily" occurs perhaps the first appearance of our little friend in Christian literature. Chaucer's affection for "floures" is well known. Of the many Shakspearean quotations in this field, probably the most familiar comprises the exquisite lines: "Violets dim,