THE MAIDEN AND THE LILY
A lily in my garden grew,
Amid the thyme and clover;
No fairer lily ever blew,
Search all the wide world over.
Its beauty passed into my heart:
I know 'twas very silly,
But I was then a foolish maid,
And it—a perfect lily.
One day a learned man came by,
With years of knowledge laden,
And him I questioned with a sigh,
Like any foolish maiden:—
"Wise sir, please tell me wherein lies—
I know the question's silly—
The something that my art defies,
And makes a perfect lily."
He smiled, then bending plucked the flower,
Then tore it, leaf and petal,
And talked to me for full an hour,
And thought the point to settle:—
"Therein it lies," at length he cries;
And I—I know 'twas silly—
Could only weep and say, "But where—
O doctor, where's my lily?"
John Fraser [1750-1811]