Thistle - Literary References

Literary References

In the Bible, following the fall of man, God says to Adam, "cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" (Genesis 3:17-18).

Hugh MacDiarmid's poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is an extended meditation on themes which are in part derived from the position of the plant in secular Scottish iconography.

Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, Garth Nix's novella in Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories, involves a rare Free Magic creature, a Hrule, being defeated by a thistle.

The thistle also features in the song The Thistle o' Scotland, which uses the plant as a humorous metaphor for the prickly determinations of the Scots.

They Burn the Thistles is the second part of the İnce Memed tetralogy by one of Turkey's leading writers, Yaşar Kemal. In the book, thistles symbolize oppression and Nature's antagonism.

The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes

The thistle is Eeyore's favourite food in Winnie the Pooh.

There are references to thistles in the Tinker Bell fairy tale series. In the 2008 Tinker Bell (film) the thistles are "sprinting thistles". They tend to cause a lot of mess and damage in their path.

A Visit from St. Nicholas He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle

In Hadji Murat, the last novel by Leo Tolstoy (published posthumously), thistle is a symbol of the main character and stands for taits of adaptability and adamancy that human beings exhibit because of their lust for life.