The Hesperides & Noble Numbers/Hesperides/How Lilies Came White

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Robert Herrick (1591-1674)2653926The Hesperides & Noble NumbersHesperides
How Lilies Came White
1898Alfred Pollard

190. HOW LILIES CAME WHITE.

White though ye be, yet, lilies, know,
From the first ye were not so;
But I'll tell ye
What befell ye:
Cupid and his mother lay
In a cloud, while both did play,
He with his pretty finger press'd
The ruby niplet of her breast;
Out of which the cream of light,
Like to a dew,
Fell down on you
And made ye white.