Prompt: Floriography

Language of Flowers by Alphonse Mucha

The May Full Moon is often called the Flower Moon. William Shakespeare used the word "flower" more than 100 times in his plays and sonnets. In Hamlet, Ophelia mentions the symbolic meanings of flowers and herbs as she hands them to other characters in Act 4. Flowers have played a significant role in literature and are symbolic in many cultures.

Whether depicted in a painting, given as a gift, used as commemorative decor, or worn as an accessory, a flower can symbolize gratitude, love, remembrance, trust, good health, or even danger.

Sending someone a bouquet of roses can be symbolic. Red, white, pink, blue, black, or yellow roses all have different symbolic meanings in floriography.

Floriography is known as the “language of flowers,” and it is a means of expressing emotion through the use of flowers. This was a discreet method of communication between people. It has existed for millennia but saw heightened popularity during the Victorian era.

King Charles's choice of funeral wreath for his mother, the late Queen, was bound by a tradition steeped in keeping emotions concealed. His sense of loss was supposed to be expressed by the choice of blooms - myrtle for love and prosperity, and English oak to represent strength. Yellow carnations are pretty, but they have a long history of being a symbol for disdain. It is also best to avoid the buttercup whose yellow petals are synonymous with childishness. Floriography also holds that placing red and white plants together makes a combination foretelling death.

Thinking of poetry using flowers, two that come to mind are Robert Frost's "A Tuft of Flowers" and Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud."

Famous poems but not floriography. For an example of that, we turn to a poem by Emily Dickinson, a poet who kept a garden, knew plants, and also had secret correspondences.

I hide myself within my flower,
That wearing on your breast,
You, unsuspecting, wear me too --
And angels know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness.

The poem explores themes of secrecy, vulnerability, and intimacy. The speaker, hiding within a flower, becomes a secret passenger on the recipient's breast, known only to the angels. "I hide myself within my flower" emphasizes the speaker's desire for concealment and connection. The poem might have been accompanied by a bouquet to her secret love, and by hiding within the flower, she can be close to the recipient without revealing her presence. The flower fading from the vase suggests the transience of life and the fragility of the speaker's position. The recipient is "unsuspecting," which heightens the sense of vulnerability and secrecy.

It is not a typical Dickinson poem, though it is characteristically short, with simple language, it doesn't play with capitalization and punctuation. It is also deceptively complex and fits into the Victorian era's fascination with floriography and repression.

For the June issue, we are looking for poems that use flowers in a symbolic way and perhaps to express something you’ve kept secret until now. First, you might want to explore the symbolic history of some flowers.