Sunflowers
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Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun's revolving splendour.
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are an annual plant native to the Americas that possess a large inflorescence (flowering head). The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of 1,000-2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. From the Americas, sunflower seeds were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient. Sunflower leaves can be used as cattle feed, while the stems contain a fibre which may be used in paper production.
Quotes
[edit]- Light-enchanted sunflower, thou
Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun's revolving splendour.- Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Magico Prodigioso (1637), scene 3. Shelley's translation.
- Restless sunflower; cease to move.
- Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Magico Prodigioso (1637), scene 3. Shelley's translation.
- But one, the lofty follower of the Sun,
Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamoured bosom to his ray.- James Thomson, The Seasons, Summer (1727), line 216.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
[edit]- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 768-69.
- Ah, Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller's journey is done;
Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!- William Blake, The Sunflower.
- The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame
To nap by daylight, strove t' excuse the blame;
It was not sleep that made him nod, he said,
But too great weight and largeness of his head.- Abraham Cowley, Of Plants, Book IV. Of Flowers. The Poppy, line 102.
- With zealous step he climbs the upland lawn,
And bows in homage to the rising dawn;
Imbibes with eagle eye the golden ray,
And watches, as it moves, the orb of day.- Erasmus Darwin, Loves of the Plants, Canto I, line 225.
- Space for the sunflower, bright with yellow glow,
To court the sky.- Caroline Gilman, To the Ursulines.
- Eagle of flowers! I see thee stand,
And on the sun's noon-glory gaze;
With eye like his, thy lids expand,
And fringe their disk with golden rays:
Though fix'd on earth, in darkness rooted there,
Light is thy element, thy dwelling air,
Thy prospect heaven.- James Montgomery, The Sunflower.
- As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets,
The same look which she turn'd when he rose.- Thomas Moore, Believe Me, if all Those Endearing Young Charms.