Ето нещо интересно, на английски:
The Poppy and the Ritual of Remembrance
It is necessary to examine the symbolic background of the poppy before tracing its development from ordinary common flower to symbol of remembrance. As it is a flower which contains many seeds, the poppy has become a symbol of fertility. Perhaps the most important element symbolically is the association the poppy has with sleep and forgetfulness. Some species of poppies can be cultivated for their opiate properties, which gives the poppy its most prominent symbol - the narcotic, sleep-inducing qualities of the plant. In mythology, poppies grew on the banks of the River Lethe, a river in Greek mythology which flowed through Hades, which the souls of the dead are 'obliged to taste, that they may forget everything said and done when alive'.5 The word lethe itself is Greek, meaning 'forgetfulness'.
The poppy symbol has a long tradition in English literature, with many references to the sleep-inducing, oblivion-creating features of the flower, or, on its fertility properties. The following examples illustrate how the poppy has been used in English literature, right up to the First World War. It is interesting to compare these examples with the poems from the war to be discussed later in this essay.
William Shakespeare writes in 'Othello',
Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep ...' (III, iii, 330).
These narcotic/sleep-inducing properties are also found in 'To Autumn' by John Keats from 1819, 'Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep/Drowsed with the fumes of poppies ...' (ll. 16-17).
The Scot, Robert Burns, mentions the many seeds of the poppies, emphasising the fertility symbolism, 'But pleasures are like poppies spread/You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed ...' 'Tam O'Shanter' (ll. 59-60).
In the poem, 'The Poppy', published in August 1891, Francis Thompson details the properties of sleep and oblivion the poppy possesses: 'Till it grew lethargied ...' (stanza 3), 'the flower/ Of sleep brings wakening to me/And of oblivion, memory' (stanza
,
'... this withering flower of dreams' (stanza 11), 'the sleep-flower ...' (stanza 16), '... the sun-hazed sleeper' (stanza 17). It is the lines of the second stanza which, considering they were written over twenty years before the First World War, seem most ominous, almost acting as a warning to the generation to follow.
With burnt mouth, red like a lion's it drank
The blood of the sun as he slaughtered sank,
And dipped its cup in the purpurate shine
When the Eastern conduits ran with wine.
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http://www.sfheart.com/poppy.htmlPoppy - Papaver somniferum - Opium poppy - Somnus, god of sleep was always crowned with poppies or lying surrounded with them. Ceres, the goddess of corn, wore a crown of grain interwoven with poppies. Poppies were sacred to Ceres. They are still called cornflowers in many European countries.
