Poems (Ryan)/The Rose and the Lily

by Mary C. Ryan

THE ROSE AND THE LILY.

One summer morn, when woods were green,
 And sweet the grassy lea,
Midst flowers fair as e'er were seen,
 A lily bloomed for me.

So queenly fair its pearl-white leaves,
 So bright its heart of gold,
While its sweet breath on aerial waves,
 Of hidden sweetness told.

It seemed to live like one I knew,
 The maid I loved so well,
In fragrant beauty, pure it grew;
 Love's tale it seemed to tell.

So to my Love, this flower fair
 I gave with vows of love;
Thinking beauty so pure and rare,
 Like love was from above.

My Love then gave me a sweet rose,
 With all its charms for youth,
And said when beauty it would lose,
 'Twould leave its fragrant breath.

The rose, the lily, and my Love,
 Alike from dust were made,
God gave them beauty from above
 That soon on earth would fade.

The rose, the lily, both are dead,
 Their fragrant lives are o'er;
And my sweet friend from me has fled,
 On earth she treads no more.

E'er like the lily she had lived,
 In beauty pure and kind;
But like the fragrant rose she died,
 Sweet mem'ries left behind.