When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
Cuckoo,
Cuckoo, Cuckoo—or word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.
[43] Act V, Scene II.
CUCKOO BUDS (Ranunculus). It is quite possible that in "cuckoo buds of yellow hue" Shakespeare meant the blossoms of the buttercup or kingcup (called by the country people of Warwickshire horse-blobs). Some authorities claim that cuckoo-buds is intended to represent the lesser celandine, of which Wordsworth was so fond that he wrote three poems to it. Others call cuckoo-buds carmine pratensis; but that could hardly be possible because Shakespeare speaks of "lady-smocks all silver white" in one line and "cuckoo buds of yellow hue" in the succeeding line.
There is much confusion in the identification of lady-smocks, cuckoo-buds, cuckoo-flowers, and crow-flowers, for they are more or less related.
Gerard says: "Our Lady-Smock is also called the cuckoo-flower because it flowers in April and May when the cuckoo doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering."
V
Anemones and "Azured Harebells"
ANEMONE (Anemone purpurea striata stellata). The anemone is described in "Venus and Adonis" very minutely:[44]
By this, the boy that by her side lay kill'd,
Was melted like a vapor from her sight,
And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd,
A purple flower sprung up chequer'd with white.
Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood,
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
[44] Verse 195.
Adonis, the beautiful youth, beloved of Venus, was wounded by a boar, to which he had given chase. Venus found him as he lay dying on the grass. To make him immortal she changed him into an anemone, or windflower. Naturally the flower was dedicated to Venus.