Flora's Lexicon/Cyclamen
YCLAMEN. Cyclamen. Class 5, Pentandria Order: Monogynia. As modest diffidence adds attractions to beauty, so does this graceful flower engage our notice by its unassuming carriage, for the cyclamen, although it expands its petals in an upright direction, never rears its head to the sun.
We present this emblem with a hope that the poets will not longer remain too diffident to let this pretty plant escape the harmony of their song, since we cannot find a line to form a motto, or grace the floral symbol of diffidence.
“Distress makes the humble heart diffident.”
The church has dedicated this flower to St. Romuald.
DIFFIDENCE.
The modest virtues mingled in her eyes,Still on the ground dejected, darting allTheir humid beams into the blooming flowers.
Thomson.
As lamps burn silent, with unconscious light,So modest ease in beauty shines most bright;Unaiming charms with edge resistless fall,And she who means no mischief, does it all.
Hill.
I pity bashful men, who feel the painOf fancied scorn and undeserved disdain,And bear the marks upon a blushing faceOf needless shame, and self-imposed disgrace.Our sensibilities are so acute,The fear of being silent makes us mute.
Cowper.
He saw her charming, but he saw not halfThe charms her downcast modesty conceal’d.
Thomson.