A Snow-white Lily Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GECE CECE CCC EHEH CCCC EEEE CDCD IJIJ CECC CCC CDCD CKCK ECEC ECEC LELE MNON LELE

There was a snow white lilyA
Grew by a cottage doorB
Such a white and wonderful lilyA
Never was seen beforeB
-
The earth and the ether brought itC
Sustenance raiment graceD
And the feet of the west wind sought itC
And smiled in its smiling faceD
-
Tall were its leaves and slenderE
Slender and tall its stemF
Purity all its splendourE
Beauty its diademF
-
Still from the ground it sproutedG
Statelier year by yearE
Till loveliness clung about itC
And was its atmosphereE
-
And the fame of this lily was bruitedC
'Mong men ever more and moreE
They came and they saw and uprootedC
Its life from the cottage doorE
-
For they said 'Twere shame 'twere pityC
It here should dwell half despisedC
We must carry it off to the cityC
Where lilies are loved and prized ''-
-
The city was moved to wonderE
And burst into praise and songH
And the multitude parted asunderE
To gaze on it borne alongH
-
Along and aloft 'twas upliftedC
From palace to palace ledC
Men vowed 'twas the lily most giftedC
Of lilies living or deadC
-
And wisdom and wealth and powerE
Bowed down to it more and moreE
Yet it never was quite the same flowerE
That bloomed by the cottage doorE
-
For no longer the night dews wrought itC
Raiment and food and graceD
Nor the feet of the west wind sought itC
To dance in its dimpling faceD
-
'Twas pursued by the frivolous rabbleI
With poisonous lips and eyesJ
They drenched it with prurient babbleI
And fed it with fulsome liesJ
-
Thus into the lily there enteredC
The taint of the tainted crewE
Till itself in itself grew centredC
And it flattery drank like dewC
-
Then tongues began words to bandyC
As to whose might the lily beC
'Tis mine '' said the titled dandyC
Said the plutocrat 'tis for me ''-
-
Thus over the lily they wrangledC
Making the beautiful baseD
Till its purity seemed all mangledC
And its gracefulness half disgraceD
-
Next they who had first enthroned itC
And blatantly hymned its fameK
Now curdling their smiles disowned itC
And secretly schemed its shameK
-
The lily began to witherE
Since the world was no longer sweetC
And hands that had brought it thitherE
Flung it into the streetC
-
A sensitive soul and tenderE
The flung away lily foundC
He had seen it in hours of splendourE
So he lifted it from the groundC
-
He carried it back to the gardenL
Where in olden days it grewE
And he knelt and prayed for it pardonL
From the sun and the breeze and the dewE
-
Then the breeze since it knows no maliceM
And the sun that detesteth strifeN
And the dew whose abode is the chaliceO
Would have coaxed back the lily to lifeN
-
But the lily would not wakenL
Nor ever will waken moreE
And feet and fame have forsakenL
Its place by the cottage doorE

Alfred Austin



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Herbert Madden: Written very well, the story has a message that beauty left in place will thrive
 

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