Annotation: Violets & Musk-Rose, Keats' Ode to a Nightingale

Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine

Musk Rose, Photo © Stefi
Musk Rose
  • Flower meaning: Whimsical beauty or charming
  • Has a musky aroma
  • Believed to originate in the Himalayas
White Violets
Violets
  • Flower meaning: Delicate love, modesty, innocence, candor, 
  • Is the flower of Greece and appears in their mythology. Diana turned one of her nymphs into a violet to protect her modesty from Apollo
  • Sometimes associate with death, for example Shakespeare's Ophelia "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died."
Sources

Collection. "The Meaning of Roses." A Picture of Roses. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012. <http://www.apictureofroses.com/cms/home/meanings.htm>

"Meaning of Violet Flowers." Garden Guides, Your Guide to Everything Gardening. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012. <http://www.gardenguides.com/82340-meaning-violet-flowers.html>.

Comments

Read something which interpreted Ophelia's flower-flinging scene. It said violets also mean faithfulness. THe muskrose probably is meant to be exotic, with its smell. And musk in Romantic poetry was a way to make something foreign and exotic. The use of dewy wine makes it sound even more exotic in a way, pleasurable and intoxicating. It's quite a distraction from the nightingale.

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