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 lily | A |
| Grew by a cottage door | B |
| Such a white and wonderful lily | A |
| Never was seen before | B |
| - | |
| The earth and the ether brought it | C |
| Sustenance raiment grace | D |
| And the feet of the west wind sought it | C |
| And smiled in its smiling face | D |
| - | |
| Tall were its leaves and slender | E |
| Slender and tall its stem | F |
| Purity all its splendour | E |
| Beauty its diadem | F |
| - | |
| Still from the ground it sprouted | G |
| Statelier year by year | E |
| Till loveliness clung about it | C |
| And was its atmosphere | E |
| - | |
| And the fame of this lily was bruited | C |
| 'Mong men ever more and more | E |
| They came and they saw and uprooted | C |
| Its life from the cottage door | E |
| - | |
| For they said 'Twere shame 'twere pity | C |
| It here should dwell half despised | C |
| We must carry it off to the city | C |
| Where lilies are loved and prized '' | - |
| - | |
| The city was moved to wonder | E |
| And burst into praise and song | H |
| And the multitude parted asunder | E |
| To gaze on it borne along | H |
| - | |
| Along and aloft 'twas uplifted | C |
| From palace to palace led | C |
| Men vowed 'twas the lily most gifted | C |
| Of lilies living or dead | C |
| - | |
| And wisdom and wealth and power | E |
| Bowed down to it more and more | E |
| Yet it never was quite the same flower | E |
| That bloomed by the cottage door | E |
| - | |
| For no longer the night dews wrought it | C |
| Raiment and food and grace | D |
| Nor the feet of the west wind sought it | C |
| To dance in its dimpling face | D |
| - | |
| 'Twas pursued by the frivolous rabble | I |
| With poisonous lips and eyes | J |
| They drenched it with prurient babble | I |
| And fed it with fulsome lies | J |
| - | |
| Thus into the lily there entered | C |
| The taint of the tainted crew | E |
| Till itself in itself grew centred | C |
| And it flattery drank like dew | C |
| - | |
| Then tongues began words to bandy | C |
| As to whose might the lily be | C |
| 'Tis mine '' said the titled dandy | C |
| Said the plutocrat 'tis for me '' | - |
| - | |
| Thus over the lily they wrangled | C |
| Making the beautiful base | D |
| Till its purity seemed all mangled | C |
| And its gracefulness half disgrace | D |
| - | |
| Next they who had first enthroned it | C |
| And blatantly hymned its fame | K |
| Now curdling their smiles disowned it | C |
| And secretly schemed its shame | K |
| - | |
| The lily began to wither | E |
| Since the world was no longer sweet | C |
| And hands that had brought it thither | E |
| Flung it into the street | C |
| - | |
| A sensitive soul and tender | E |
| The flung away lily found | C |
| He had seen it in hours of splendour | E |
| So he lifted it from the ground | C |
| - | |
| He carried it back to the garden | L |
| Where in olden days it grew | E |
| And he knelt and prayed for it pardon | L |
| From the sun and the breeze and the dew | E |
| - | |
| Then the breeze since it knows no malice | M |
| And the sun that detesteth strife | N |
| And the dew whose abode is the chalice | O |
| Would have coaxed back the lily to life | N |
| - | |
| But the lily would not waken | L |
| Nor ever will waken more | E |
| And feet and fame have forsaken | L |
| Its place by the cottage door | E |
Alfred Austin
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About A Snow-white Lily
A Snow-white Lily is a poem by Alfred Austin. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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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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