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1. "Lizzie's Favorite Flower"
Posted by Susan on May-15th-02 at 1:20 AM

The Pansy

from Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information and Treasury of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge  1882

and from Le Language des Fleurs  1819  Louise Cortambert a.k.a. Madame Charlotte de la Tour

Pansy: Remembrance, thoughtfullness, reflections, also thoughts(from the French word, pansee-meaning thought)

Pansy in a floral arrangement: You occupy my thoughts, good thoughts for you.

I also found this poem, do not know who the author is?

I send thee pansies while the year is young
Yellow as sunshine, purple as the night;
Flowers of rememberance, ever fondly sung
By all the chiefest of the sons of light;
And if in recollection lives regret
For wasted days and dreams that were not true,
I tell thee that the pansy "streaked with jet"
Is still the heart's ease that the poets knew.
Take all the sweetness of a gift unsought,
And for the pansies send me back a thought.

Some Pansy's For You

Thanks for the good thoughts, Kat!    I wonder though what color was Lizzie's favorite?  For some reason I get the purple.

According to this page Sarah Doudney wrote the poem.

http://www.quipo.it/abcfiori/abcinglese/wordsina.html

Thanks, Harry!  I found that poem, but, they had no author listed whatsoever!  And, "freaked" with jet?  Now I wonder which is correct?  But, how is something freaked with something else?  Hmmm?:-?

"freaked with jet" - - I believe the poet meant "streaked with black."
Poets like to be vague -- and aren't we lucky to have such a skillful researcher as Harry on our Message Board!

Yes, I agree, Harry is a helpful guy.  The way I had found the poem was with the "streaked" with jet, I guess maybe someone took artistic license somewhere?  I looked up freak in the dictionary and found:
1 Whim, caprice or 2 a strange, abnormal, or unusual person or thing.  So, that would kind of make sense, a flower that is made unusual with black on it. 

I'm with William. It's probably a misprint..."Streaked" preferred. Here's some more pansy's for you....

Hello Kat:

One of the definitions for "freaked" in the American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd ed.: To speckle or streak with color.

"The white pink and the pansy freak'd with jet."(a line from Lycidas, by John Milton)

Bill
                         

Thanks for the info, William.  I unfortunately only have a current Webster's dictionary.  So much gets lost in the translation of things if you don't speak Olde English or at least can look it up. 

Times change and the meaning of words change. It seems from the conversation here that the poet said "freaked" to mean a pansy flecked with black (as per your research). It used to be the thing to say something was "freaky" or we were "freaked out" by something meaning we were astounded or put off by it. 

But "freaked" fits with the meaning of the poem because of the times usage of the word and that in those days each flower actually had a meaning and to send someone a certain flower meant something to a woman. 

To me, the poet is saying that we do have days like the beautiful perfectly colored pansies (i.e..perhaps meaning our days without care) and that these become so much fonder when we think of our days that are not so perfect, filled with problems or "freaked" (stressed and strange days filled with the black of despondency or regret (as in her line "For wasted days and dreams that were not true."  But never the less, wise people (poets) know that a little rain must fall into each life (the "freaked pansy") and we need to cherish those the sweet times as well as the not so sweet but especially cherish those gifts and good times we get that we don't ask for and be grateful for them.

Even if Lizzie perhaps didn't know of this poem it says a lot about her life especially since the pansy was her favorite flower. She certainly must have been grateful that the jury brought in a not guilty verdict.

Thanks, Carol, you are very insightful!  When I had stumbled across these books I took a look and, of course, had to check up Pansies.  Its interesting, I wonder how aware Lizzie was of the meaning of the Pansy and if that is why she liked them? 

So the original version posted had the misprint, "streaked" ?

Is this the origion of "freaked out", in hippie terminology?  That would be cool.

I remember we had spoken of "heart's ease", as another term for Pansy. 
Carol, do you think young ladies of the turn-of-the-19th century would know of "the meaning" of flowers?

(Message last edited May-17th-02  3:53 PM.)

Hi. I think that the hippie term "freaked out" must have come not in relation to flowers although they were called flower children, but from the not so pleasant habit of calling those we think different freaks, so to be freaked out was a play on that.  I don't really remember, Kat, even though I remember it being used all the time.

I think William was on to it when he quoted from Milton's poem because the lady who wrote the poem Susan listed must have borrowed the saying from that...I think it was in quotes?

Anyway, I do believe that ladies of Lizzies time did know the meaning of flowers.  I looked up a couple internet sites and one said that there were three types of pansies, the plain color, the ones with black lines from the center called penciling, and the ones with a dark center called a face. This site also said that the word pansy came from the French word pensee which means "thought".

The best site for the confirmation that ladies were really into the meaning of flowers was http:www.tlt.com/articles/language_of_flowers.htm
and it gave the same French origin for the word and said that in the l800s books called floriography were published with lists of flowers and their meanings and lovers used to send messages by way of the type of flowers they gave. The site also gave a listing of many flowers and their meanings.

So I was wondering, of course, when Lizzie chose the pansy was her favorite flower and perhaps did this have something to do with a young man sending or giving her a pansy at one time? And perhaps did she spend time in "thoughts" of him. Or did the flower possibly pertain to remembrances of her father if the gold ring situation has any meaning beyond that of a daughter's gift to her father? 
                 Just T H I N K I N G again.

Yes, Carol, it does give one pause to think.  I have wondered about this too, if there is more meaning to Lizzie's choice or if she simply happened to like Pansies?