Steepletop - Lilacs: Leslie Shallcross

Posted At : July 31, 2008 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Outdoors,Poetry

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From "Steepletop," a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, appearing in her volume Mine the Harvest, published by HarperCollins.

Read by Leslie Shallcross: "Who could help but be a fan of the large, fragrant purple or creamy white blossoms -- they are beautiful downtown right now! As a child, I often played in the wonderful retreat provided by lilac bushes -- the thick trunks created a hiding place under the beautiful foliage and flowers." Leslie is an 8-year resident of Alaska, a public health nutritionist, and an assistant professor with the Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Health, Home and Family Development program. Her earliest memories of family life include enjoying observations of the natural world -- identifying the flowers, trees, snakes and birds in her yard. And of course smelling the lilacs.

Edna St. Vincent Millay loved the lilacs in her garden, but she noticed what happened in the rain in her poem "Steepletop." This is the second stanza of the poem:

"Nothing could stand
All this rain.
The lilacs were drowned, browned
   before I had even
   smelled them
Cool against my cheek, held down
A little by my hand.
Pain
Is seldom preventable, but is
   presentable
Even to strangers on a train--
But what the rain
Does to the lilacs--is something
   you must sigh and try
To explain."

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Leslie! My nutritionist from American Whole Health in Bethesda 10 years ago! I still use all the concepts you taught me, and have kept my weight off, and lower, for all these years! I am even a part of the National Weight Loss Registry. I really wish you were still available for consults--so many of my friends need your help, and I have never found anyone else like you. Let me know if you do phone consulting! I hope you are well!

Carol Cox

# Posted By Carol Cox | 1/26/09 3:41 PM

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