Welcome back to Flower Poetry Fridays with Mrs. Sigourney. Each Friday a new poem will be posted from her The Voice Of Flowers.
THE WHITE LILY.
TO A YOUNG LADY. White Lily with Water Drops (by Foxytocin at DeviantArt)
WITH its pure and stainless breast,
See the graceful Lily rise,
Bearing on its snowy vest
Pearly dew-drops from the skies.
Emblem of the youthful mind—
Fresh from Nature’s pencil bright,
And by Heaven’s own smile refin’d
For unfading realms of light.
Fair One—may thy life below,
Like that peaceful flow’ret prove,
And thy spirit’s fragrance flow
O’er the fervent heart of love.
Of thyself forgetful still,
All who dwell around thee bless,
Heedful of thy Maker’s will,
Beautiful in lowliness.
Long may faithful Memory dwell
On thy virtues fond and true,
And Affection’s tablet tell
Where the stainless Lily grew.
The waxy petals of the lily seem so pearly white. It’s as if they’ve been untouched and not blemished in any way, like a young lady.
Refined, maybe. Virtuous, of course. Beautiful, yes.
A common theme running through Mrs. Sigourney’s writing is a dutiful reverence for a Higher Power, called “Thy Maker” in this short poem. She speaks about Heaven smiling down on the purity and gracefulness of the stainless lily.
If we all could be like the lily, being ‘beautiful in lowliness’, the world would be a better place. Pride, envy and greed get in the way for many of us, so it’s hard to be like the simple, unstained flower.
My favorite lines are, “Of thyself forgetful still, All who dwell around thee bless”. It’s as if the white lily adorns the whole community where she grows because she is a beautiful flower.
Come back next Friday for the next installment in our series of flower poems from Mrs. Sigourney’s The Voice of Flowers, “Flora’s Party”.
