Figure 1 – The pensive little man in the pansy. Acton, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I don’t what to seem like a broken record, but I posted about Pansies last May. So I am seeking an indulgence from my readers for repetition. “… there are pansies, they’re for thought.” Those are Ophelia’s words from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and they remind us of the medieval association of the flower “pansy” with thought.  The English name pansy comes from the French word pensée “thought.”  It was imported into Late Middle English as a name of for certain violets in the mid-15th century.  The why lies in the flower itself, the face of a little thoughtful man.  To me it resembles more a thoughtful lion, especially when, as in Figure 1, the pansy is yellow or orange.

But, and here’s the significance, every spring when I see pansies of whatever color, I look for that little face, the little thoughtful man.  That instantly reminds me of Hamlet, always one of my favorites, and of visits to the Cloisters in New York City growing up where they have this wonderful Shakespeare Garden of all the plants mention in his plays. So please indulge my repetition and enjoy the face of the lion.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 81 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/640th sec at f/11.0 with +1 exposure compensation