My classes are getting ready to study "Hamlet". This is a wonderful exercise to get them thinking. Thanks.

[]JARDIN ETYMOLOGIQUE


I rap with sod rhapsodically
I raise both hues and cries.
My posies blend melodically
In rants and lullabies.

Prim pansies ponder pensively,
In phrases frankly French,
They blush at fennel's flattery--
That seedy, seasoned wench.

Sweet violets nonviolently
Surround some sheepish phlox.
Remembrance bides in rosemary
Bedecked in lady smocks.

Bright daisies are the day's eyes
Assuring columbines:
No aphids, thrips or mayflies;
Just honeysuckle vines.

Should slugs or snails there congregate
To blight this blessed bower,
I hasten to ranunculate*
With counteractive power.

*For black-thumbs lacking Latin, the ranunculus is derived from the Latin word for small (leaping) frog. For further information on the language of flowers, consult Shakespeare's mad Ophelia in re pansies, fennel and rosemary; or rue the day.