THE AWAKENING OF THE LILIES.
Beneath the placid waters
A lily bulb had birth;
It slept in sweet reliance
In arms of mother earth.
In home beneath the waters,
It slept in calm repose;
With sweetness of the lily,
And beauty of the rose.
One morn the Sun looked downward,
And loving words he spake.
The lily bulb awakened
From dreams, beneath the lake.
A little bud shot upward
To meet the sun-god’s call,
It sent forth all its fragrance
Its lover to enthrall.
It sprang from out the waters,
And donned its pure white gown.
No sin defiled its beauty,
Its virtue was its crown.
The little bud then blossomed,—
So fragrant, pure and sweet,
The air was filled with fragrance,
And many stopped to greet
The pure white lily blossom
That on the water lay;
A ruthless hand then plucked it,
But threw it soon away.—
It faded, and then withered;
The earth was not its home;
It missed the sparkling water,
Nor wished from it to roam
Upon life’s turbid waters
A human flower was born.
As pure as water-lily,
With beauty of the dawn.
’Twas in a vine-clad cottage
Close by the lily’s home;
Where dwelt this pure young maiden,
Nor wished she e’er to roam.
To her there came a lover—
But soon he cast aside
The crushed and faded blossom
Who was his promised bride.
In lone, and dreary hovel
A weeping woman lay.
No loving hand to tend her,
And naught but shadows gray.—
She sinned in loving, trusting,
And what was her reward?
Dishonored, and forsaken,
No friend had she but God.
And in this lonely hovel
A little child was born.—
A little human lily
First saw the light of dawn.
Unheralded its coming,
Unwelcome was its birth.
This little human lily
Was born from out the earth.
It came without love’s greeting,
Its death caused not one tear;
’Twas born into conditions
That cost its mother dear.—
This child was pure and holy,
Though it was born of sin.—
Its heavenly father loved it,
So took it from the din
Of earthly cares and sorrows.
He took the mother too.
The child is with her sleeping,
No tears their grave bedew.
Together in one coffin
The human lilies lie;
Dishonored, and forsaken,
They blossomed but to die.
They lie upon the hillside.—
Some pitying hand now gave
A pure, white lily blossom,
To deck the outcasts’ grave.
CONQUERED.
I am beaten in the race of life,
Will acknowledge my defeat.
As I struggle on the uphill road,
Naught but failure do I meet.
I have fought the fight, have conquered been
At every stage of life.
For the battle is not for the weak;
Not fitted they for strife.
I must leave the battle ground of life
Where I have found but woe.
And at last will give the warfare up,
Lay down my arms to foe.
For “the race of life is for the swift,”
“The battle for the strong.”
And my place has been marked out for me
Among the defeated throng.—
THE WATER SPIRIT.
Beneath the wave tossed waters,
Upon the ocean bed;
There dwelt a water spirit,
To sea-king she was wed.
Years passed in happy wedlock,
And pledges to them came
Of love beneath the ocean;
For love is e’er the same.
They lived in sweet communion
Among their sea-weed flowers.
’Twas ever peace and gladness
Within their love-lit bowers.
One little spirit wandering
Away from childhood’s home—
Came into unknown waters,—
Beneath a coral dome,—
She heard a spirit teaching
A doctrine, new and strange;
She listened to his preaching,
And thought took wider range.
He told of other peoples
Who lived above the sea.
Of birds with brilliant plumage,
Who in the air were free.
To her this was awakening
From out a long, long sleep.
The soul was stirred within her,
To flowers of thought most deep.
Now to her home returning—
Dissension there arose;
Her former friends so loving,
Were now her bitter foes.
They cried to her “O heretic!”
You are forever lost,
Unless you pray to Neptune,
And not by doubts be tossed.
There is no God but Neptune,
There is no world but ours,
There are no stars, nor planets,
There are but sea-weed flowers.
And tilled with consternation
At everything she said—
They even feared pollution,
And from her they all fled.