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Doris Lessing quote ✍️

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THE LILIESThis morning it was, on the pavement, When that smell hit me again And set the houses reeling. People passed like rain: (The way rain moves and advances over the hills) And it was hot, hot and dank, The smell like animals, strong, but sweet too. What was it? Something I had forgotten. I tried to remember, standing there, Sniffing the air on the pavement. Somehow I thought of flowers. Flowers! That bad smell! I looked: down lanes, past houses--There, behind a hoarding, A rubbish-heap, soft and wet and rotten. Then I remembered: After the rain, on the farm, The vlei that was dry and paler than a stone Suddenly turned wet and green and warm. The green was a clash of music. Dry Africa became a swamp And swamp-birds with long beaks Went humming and flashing over the reeds And cicadas shrilling like a train. I took off my clothes and waded into the water. Under my feet first grass, then mud, Then all squelch and water to my waist. A faint iridescence of decay, The heat swimming over the creeks Where the lilies grew that I wanted: Great lilies, white, with pink streaks That stood to their necks in the water. Armfuls I gathered, working there all day. With the green scum closing round my waist, The little frogs about my legs, And jelly-trails of frog-spawn round the stems. Once I saw a snake, drowsing on a stone, Letting his coils trail into the water. I expect he was glad of rain too After nine moinths of being dry as bark. I don't know why I picked those lilies, Piling them on the grass in heaps, For after an hour they blackened, stank. When I left at dark, Red and sore and stupid from the heat, Happy as if I'd built a town, All over the grass were rank Soft, decaying heaps of lilies And the flies over them like black flies on meat...
Doris Lessing Going Home africa childhood flowers nature

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Similar Crossword Answers

Answer Clues
LEAP 497 clues
HORSE 448 clues
WINE 437 clues
AFRICA 296 clues
NATURE 180 clues
GIRLS 108 clues
ALCOHOL 91 clues
FLOWERS 30 clues
SUICIDE 16 clues
CHILDHOOD 13 clues

Similar crossword clues

  1. Book by Doris Lessing 76.47%
  2. Novelist Lessing 75.86%
  3. Author Lessing 74.07%
  4. Writer Lessing 74.07%
  5. Doris' dresses? 69.23%
  6. Doris Leak's husband. 66.67%
  7. Doris Actress and singer 64.86%
  8. Doris Meissner's agcy. 64.71%
  9. Doris or Clarence 60.00%
  10. Doris ___, U. S. painter 60.00%
  11. Doris Day refrain 60.00%
  12. British novelist Lessing 59.46%
  13. Doris of films 59.26%
  14. Doris Duke, e.g. 59.26%
  15. Doris's wisdom? 59.26%
  16. Doris ___, tennis champion. 58.82%
  17. Doris and Clarence 58.06%
  18. Doris's 1937 diversion? 57.14%
  19. Doris or Dennis 57.14%
  20. Doris's protege? 57.14%
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Unscramble DORIS5-letter words that start with D5-letter words that end in S5-letter words containing OR5-letter words containing IS5-letter words with D and O
Archaic object pronoun
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T
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H
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E
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E
Hint 1 meaning
The objective case of thou. See Thou.
Hint 2 anagram
TEHE
Hint 3 another clue
BEING USED OR WORKED FOR THE FIRST TIME
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