Friday Flowers: Marigolds

A mix of marigolds from the Huntington Gardens


Kubla Kahn (Lines 1 to 11)
(By Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
     Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.


Today we celebrate the birth date of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born on this day in 1772. Yeah, the unabashed Romanticism and emotive excessiveness may not be cool for the contemporary school, but his smooth lyricism and flowing rhymes deserve some time to be read again with a fresh point of view. ;-)

Marigolds: Tagetes Patula

And what of the marigolds? Well, I was thinking of how folks are setting up "haunted house" trappings with store bought fabrications. That's fine, but I'd rather take my decor "old school" with simple pumpkins amidst the marigolds, the flower of the dead.

What captures your aesthetic imagination more, cardboard ghosts and a giant plastic spider or a sea of marigolds in which sits a single painted calavera?

Marigolds: Tagetes Erecta

I suppose this is where Coleridge and the marigolds share a commonality, an authenticity that seems old-fashioned in contrast to pop culture's ready-made designs.

Here are a few vids featuring Coleridge's poetry:

Kubla Kahn

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Frost at Midnight

Enjoy!!!