Forget-me-not inspiration

Forget-me-not inspiration
According to a German legend, God was giving names to all the plants when a tiny unnamed one cried out, “Forget-me-not, O Lord!” And God replied, “That shall be your name.” Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He picked a posy of flowers, but because of the weight of his armor he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the posy to his loved one and shouted “Forget-me-not.” It was often worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The moose-ear forget-me-not, Myosotis laxa, has now extended its racemes very much, and hangs over the edge of the brook. It is one of the most interesting minute flowers. It is the more beautiful for being small and unpretending; even flowers must be modest.”

In Evangeline, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote – “Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven, Blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.”

In his 1947 long poem “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction,” Wallace Stevens mentions the forget-me-not, using its scientific Greek-derived name: It observes the effortless weather turning blue. And sees the myosotis on its bush.

Keith Douglas, 1920–1944, wrote his poem “Vergissmeinnicht” (Forget-me-not) about a dead German soldier in World War II whose body is found by the poet with a photograph of his girl with her words written “Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht” but it’s not believed by some people.

J. R. R. Tolkien refers to the flower in his poems. The character of Tom Bombadil is said to have the color of the flower on his jacket (Lord of the Rings, chapter seven, book I).

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling when Harry Potter first meets Professor Lockhart, Professor Lockhart “…was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes…” (chapter four page 59 of the 1999 American edition).

Forget-me-not inspiration