From Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet by Marta McDowell:
“Emily Dickinson knew her Bible from years of reading her King James, a present from her father. She quoted gardening passages from both testaments when it suited her. References to ‘Consider the lilies’ (Luke 12:27; Matthew 6:28), appear a half-dozen times in her letters, often with gifts of flowers….
“With a flair for exaggeration, she once confessed ‘the only Commandment I ever obeyed – ‘Consider the Lilies.”’’
“As summer progresses, the lilies open with fanfare. The blooms are preceded by dense tufts of green each spring that extend into green leafy stalks. Trumpet-shaped flowers return reliably year after year. Dickinson grew an array of lilies, a spectacle in the garden for weeks. There were many varieties including an alluring, unnamed ‘white one with rose-powdered petals and brown velvet stamens, far more elaborate than the simple varieties,’ plus Japanese lilies, yellow lilies, Madonna lilies, and tiger lilies.”
Hello!
This is the eighth of ten posts in my “Lilies on Black Backgrounds” series. The previous posts in this series are:
Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (4 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (5 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (6 of 10)
Lilies on Black Backgrounds (7 of 10)
Thanks for taking a look!
