In myth she was a wood nymph
quarry for a little, lustful god 
and maidenly must hide her form
in foliage. Not found but plucked 
just the same; just a gamine girl
all hollowed out for Pan
to play upon.

And still Syringa sings, midway in Spring,
Close clustered sprigs of white
or purples prim, to tantalize my eyes.
A singling out by scent, so sweet,
so strong. And when lilacs last
in the dooryard bloomed*
I cried again for an old love
and donned these widow weeds
of muted mauve, long after mourning.
 

31 thoughts on “Syringa”

1. This is exquisitely drawn, Laura! I love “close clustered sprigs of white or prim purple,” and the way you weaved in the line by Whitman! 😍😍

   1. I really enjoyed this prompt so thank you for hosting and for the Whitman lines too

      1. My pleasure! xx

2. Love that opening stanza, the lustful god and gamine girl. And the Whitman lilacs. Fella had a way with words. “Widow Weeds” wonder who the heck first used that turn of a phrase.

   1. thank you Yvonne – its become pejorative but is quite descriptive of that feeling I was left with after my husband died –

3. Such a poignant melding of myth and the passage of life–“plucked” girl to widow.

   I sort of wish we still had some of those mourning rituals and displays–at least for those we wish to mourn.

   1. perhaps Syringa is mourning Pan 😉 I had not quite seen the connection of the ages so thank you for your observations Merril

      1. You’re very welcome, Laura. 🙂

4. Beautiful! Reads like a fairytale with an almost sing-song lilt 🌸

   1. that is good to know as I try to bring the lilt in when I do not go for rhyme

5. So much of the natural world is infused with Greek myth. The beauty tinged with sorrow. You’ve captured that feeling. (K)

   1. Beauty often seems to give rise to nostalgia in me 😦 and plants classified with Latin names derived from Greek are a great source for the poet – Linnaeus was a well-educated man!

      1. As are so few today, unfortunately. I know my own education was sorely lacking in many areas. But perhaps there is just too much to know now. I do despair of education’s lack of acknowledgement of the arts and the humanities these days. Which is probably why so many lack humanity. Life cannot be reduced to conspiracy theories and technology.

         1. I too despair of the level of education all round – how is it we have gone backwards, to a need to know basis rather than a desire to know more and more?

6. Gorgeous to read, I too feel that it seems to move through the seasons of age.

   1. thank you that is an interesting view of the poem

7. Beautiful weaving of the myth and how it intertwines with customs we lost, and customs we still do. It always feels special to me as well that we separately and collectively all get inspired or nudged into the history of things at the same time, like writing and reading poems about Pan, when it is Lupercalia, the 3 days that celebrate him.

   1. Thank you for all that feedback – I love to learn something and you never disappoint. How timely and coincidental that I should summon Pan in these Lupercalia days I knew nothing of

      1. It is the unexplainable thing / feeling / hunch that make Arts and Writing a collective, I think ❤

         1. and a tap into the collective unconscious too perhaps?

8. I love to learn something, all aspects of traditions and myth woven into this… I might look upon lilacs in a new light after reading this.

   1. I love untangling all the layers of myth and meanings – but as Freud might have said, sometimes lilac is just a lilac

9. I love the classical lilt and lyricism throughout the poem. Your incorporation of the Whitman line is seamless. So well done, and interesting background to boot.

   1. thank you for your kind appreciation D.

10. A master jeweller’s setting for Whitman’s lines Laura, and though I knew of the Pan pipe connection, I didn’t know about the widow’s colour palette so thank you for that…

    1. thank you for that sparkling simile – swap – I did not know of the panpipes before!

11. A beautifully, vivid setting for the prompt line, Laura. ❤️

    1. many thanks Dora

12. Beautiful weaving of myth with the given line, Laura!
    (And as always, I learned something new!🙂)

    1. add as always many thanks for your kind words of encouragement

       1. Always a pleasure to read your words.

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