Le Mie Ricompense
To celebrate World Book Day, we’ve put together a list of our favourite plant moments from literature, children’s books and mythology. The Bloombox Club team have been wracking their brains all week, so if you have any to add, let us know in the comments!
Wordsworth's Healing Daffodils
Most of us know that Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud, but not everyone remembers the daffodils that release him from the feeling. A key figure in the Romantic movement, Wordsworth's poetry marks a shift away the instrumentalist attitude to nature held during the Enlightenment. Where his predecessors sought to dissect, learn and profit from plants, Wordsworth saw in nature the power to move and transform mankind.
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
In the cult-classic science fiction novel, a meteor shower leaves the population of Earth blind, and an aggressive species of plant dubbed the 'Triffad' is spawned. These creatures are venomous, carnivorous and mobile - not what you'd want in your subscription box!
March of the Ents in Lord of the Rings
Trees really save the day in second part of the much loved trilogy. Tolkein, who spent most of his life surrounded by the rich landscape of South Africa, ardently believed in the power of the natural world: arguably, the whole of the Rings trilogy is a pastoral fable. Drawing on the Anglo-Saxon word for giant, 'ents' are described as 'shepherds of the forests:' ancient living trees who act as guardians of the land. At the novel's climax, the giant trees take centre stage and change the course of a losing battle.
Daphne's Transformation in Apollo and Daphne
When Apollo offends Eros, the god of love responds by instilling in Apollo an obsessive desire for the nymph Daphne. Daphne, having renounced marriage and relationships, beseeches her father to protect her from Apollo. He responds by encasing her in bark and turning her into a laurel tree. Mythology has it that the leaves of Bay laurels are evergreen, because Apollo bestowed his gift of eternal youth upon the tree.
