The whole town is awash with lilacs,
and up the streets and down the lanes great bushes
scent the entire village with this glorious iconic fragrance
that marks the middle of May.
I miss the creamy white blossoms of the Philadelphia Orange. and its sweet, tangy fragrance,
but I am so glad to have lilacs again in this town garden.
They are complemented by the virginal clusters on the Mountain Ash
and it is so lovely to sit in the back garden and listen to the green grass growing
and breath the heady perfume of spring.
Amy Lowell speaks of the universality of the lilac -
"the great flood of our souls, bursting above the leaf-shape of our hearts,"
In excerpts from her poem "Lilacs" she says
"Your great puffs of flowers
are everywhere in this my New England.
Among your heart-shaped leaves
Orange orioles hop like music box birds and sing
Their little weak soft songs;
In the crooks of your branches
The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs
Peer restlessly through the light and shadow
of all Springs.
Lilacs in dooryards
Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;
Lilacs watching a deserted house
Settling sideways into the grass of an old road;
Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom
above a cellar dug unto a hill.
You are everywhere."
and again.......
"Lilacs...
You have forgotten your Eastern origin,
The veiled women with eyes like panthers,
The swollen, aggressive turbans of jeweled pashas.
Now you are a very decent flower,
A curiously clear-cut, candid flower,
Standing beside clean doorways,
Friendly to a house-cat and a pair of spectacles,
Making poetry out of a bit of moonlight
And a hundred or two sharp blossoms."
Beautiful!!!!
What a contented week-end we had, working in the garden.
The sun shone, the breeze was cool, but not chilly,
the bleeding heart and the peonies and coral bells
that came with us into town are catching up to their village buddies
who were well established and quite at home when we came here.
All is right in this small corner of the world...
Amy Lowell speaks of the universality of the lilac -
"the great flood of our souls, bursting above the leaf-shape of our hearts,"
In excerpts from her poem "Lilacs" she says
"Your great puffs of flowers
are everywhere in this my New England.
Among your heart-shaped leaves
Orange orioles hop like music box birds and sing
Their little weak soft songs;
In the crooks of your branches
The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs
Peer restlessly through the light and shadow
of all Springs.
Lilacs in dooryards
Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;
Lilacs watching a deserted house
Settling sideways into the grass of an old road;
Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom
above a cellar dug unto a hill.
You are everywhere."
and again.......
"Lilacs...
You have forgotten your Eastern origin,
The veiled women with eyes like panthers,
The swollen, aggressive turbans of jeweled pashas.
Now you are a very decent flower,
A curiously clear-cut, candid flower,
Standing beside clean doorways,
Friendly to a house-cat and a pair of spectacles,
Making poetry out of a bit of moonlight
And a hundred or two sharp blossoms."
Beautiful!!!!
What a contented week-end we had, working in the garden.
The sun shone, the breeze was cool, but not chilly,
the bleeding heart and the peonies and coral bells
that came with us into town are catching up to their village buddies
who were well established and quite at home when we came here.
All is right in this small corner of the world...
5 comments:
Belated congratulations on your anniversary, Hildred. Glad your corner of the world is enjoying the visions and scents of spring. We have the fragrance of wild roses and honeysuckle here for awhile!
I miss lilacs, having lived most of my life in New England. Apparently we have landed a bit too far south for them to flourish.
My favorites are the deep red/purple ones--but then, nothing surpasses the double white for elegance and scent. Maybe I can find a lilac that will thrive in Kentucky.
It all sounds so lovely, here autumn is doing its usual thing, cold and windy but unfortunately not much rain, I think we may expect a few frosts later this week.
Oh yes Wanda, - honeysuckle - a favourite. And I remember wild prairie roses that grew along a shortcut we took to school. There is a lovely bank of them along the road to Ginty's Pond but they are not in bloom yet.
I didn't realize lilacs didn't thrive in the south, - wish I could send you some. And Penny, - rain and frosts, - all in season but I'm glad we have put them behind us for a while.
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