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“Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness."
Roses may be the traditional Valentine’s Day offering but the purple petals used by Puck to cast spoonie-eyed, moonie-pied love spells in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” came from a very different flower. "Love-in-idleness" is an Old World name for pansy.
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