Edna St. Vincent Millay Cleans the Kitchen

"One way there was of muting in the mind
A little while the ever-clamorous care;
And there was rapture, of a decent kind,
In making mean and ugly objects fair:

"Soft-sooted kettle-bottoms, that had been
Time after time set in above the fire,
Faucets, and candlesticks, corroded green,
To mine again from quarry; to attire
The shelves in paper petticoats, and tack
New oilcloth in the ringed-and-rotten's place,

"Polish the stove till you could see your face,
And after nightfall rear an aching back
In a changed kitchen, bright as a new pin,

"An advertisement, far too fine to cook a supper in."

from an "Ungrafted Tree by Edna St. Vincent Millay

April Freeze & Edna St. Vincent Millay

An April freeze forecast

had me busy cutting flowers for the house.

The poet's flower above made me think

of lovely verses by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

"Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand

Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!"

"Second Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I always hesitate to cut flowers as they fade so quickly

but the Sir Winston Churchill buds above

will most likely freeze to mush outside.

Brought inside, this most fragrant of all the Narcissus

in our garden will perfume the rooms intensely. 

"My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--

It gives a lovely light."

"First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

And just because these lines are lovely also:

"And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, 

From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;

And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,

And the sun rose dripping, a basketful of gold."

"Recuerdo" by Edna St. Vincent Millay