Alas for perfectly lovely words that acquire pejorative meanings over the years! Earlier in this century, pansy became a derogatory epithet to describe an effete male, thereby cheapening forever lines like Shelley's noble image in Adonais ( verse XXXIII ): His head was bound with pansies over-blown,
Alas for perfectly lovely words that acquire pejorative meanings! Earlier this century, pansy became an epithet for an effete man, cheapening noble lines like Shelley's in Adonais: His head was bound with pansies over-blown,