Monochrome Madness – lilacs

animals, Black and White photos, Photography

Portrait of a Lady

Now that lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room
And twists one in his fingers while she talks.
“Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands”;
(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
“You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see.”
I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea.

An excerpt from the poem By T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot

Close-up of delicate lilac flowers surrounded by large leaves captured in soft monochrome tones

Leanne’s Monochrome Madness

12 thoughts on “Monochrome Madness – lilacs”

  1. Love lilacs and actually knew the poem . . . do not remember seeing them in monochrome . . . but the way light has been used makes the photos an absolute dream . . .

  4. People have been moaning at me today for using monochrome for my water-shot. I rejected their criticisms, as you can reject mine. I WOULD like colour for these lovely lilac shots.

  5. Unlike Margaret I’m very happy with these as a monochrome study as I think it brings out the delicacy of the flowers 🙂 I studied that poem at university btw!

      1. I find the poem very wistful in the way it speaks of a failure to properly connect with each other. It seems the speaker and the lady are on parallel paths, friends of a sort yet never truly connecting.

  6. I was about to comment on the color version, Ritva! The monochrome version really gives it the otherworldliness of the lilacs. Like watching an old Twilight Zone TV episode. Now I’m off to read the color version!

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