Poems (Hoffman)/Our Lilies

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

OUR LILIES.

Beautiful lily, so pure and pale,
Lightly poised on thy slender stem,
Soon, soon, shall wither thy petals frail—
But another lily must fade with them.

Another lily as pure and pale,
Beautiful, but so still and cold;
Broken its life-stem in the gale,
Before its petals could quite unfold.

Did we guess when thy tiny bud appeared
On a dewy morn, forever past,
Where with our broken bud endeared,
Thy beautiful form should fade at last?

We have chosen thee for the little hands
That shall gather earth's blossoms nevermore;
But we know she sings with the angel bands,
Midst the fadeless fields of the other shore.

God walked in His garden and saw it there,
The dear human bud that His love had given;
He knew earth's desert was bleak and bare,
And took it to bloom midst the flowers of Heaven.

Where the storms of time can never scar
Its fragile form with their cruelty;
Where the dust of earth can never mar
The pearl of its perfect purity.

Beautiful lily so unalloyed,
Thy sisters shall blossom nor sigh for thee;
But oh the measureless empty void
In hearts and homes that must ever be.

Blossoms as lovely and sweet as thou
Shalt wither forgotten among the rest;
But thou shalt live in our memory now,
Clasped to that still, white-mantled breast.

Oh, dost thou fear in the tomb to fade,
Or shrink from the tear-bedewed couch so low;
Thou the last earthly blossom laid,
In the hands of One who has loved them so!

No, like a blessed symbol sent,
Thy incense rises to waft away;
Like a beautiful spirit just unpent,
Lingering gently but cannot stay.

Cover them o'er with the valley clods,
Safe from the blight of earth's frosty gale;
This was our lily, but that was God's,
Beautiful lilies so pure and pale.