Sunday, April 03, 2005

Asphodel


From the Latin - asphodelus (asphodel): Middle English - affodil: Modern - daffodil. In the Language of Flowers, daffodil means respect, regard, unrequited love, and deceit. Asphodel is linked with the saying, "My regrets follow you to the grave." I noticed in the thesaurus that "daffodil" is a synonym for axiom, proverb and aphorism although I have never heard it used in this manner.

The yellow flower of spring with many varieties; frilly flowers, plain petals, varying shades of yellow to yellow orange and my personal favorite...the cream colored petal with the pinkish orange trumpet. Some grow only where planted and others spread to cover a hillside. How these came to grow on the eroding bank of a drainage ditch in Virginia Beach I will never know, but while all the surrounding brush and debris are still bare and dead from winter, they have pushed their heads through the cold earth to reach the sun and in turn brighten my day.

I looked for sites about asphodel and daffodils and these were my favorites.

Quotes:
From Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone - Professor Snape: "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death.

Oscar Wilde in The Burden of Stys - There is a tiny yellow daffodil. The butterfly can see it from afar, although one summer evening's dew could fill its little cup twice over, ere the star had called the lazy shepherd to his fold, and be no prodigal.

Agnes Repplier - Sleep sweetly in the fields of asphodel, and waken, as of old, to stretch thy languid length, and purr thy soft contentment to the skies.


I also found this site about "The Daffodil Garden" in California. Great story. Amazing. Posted by Hello

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