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I like not lady-slippers,
Not yet the sweet-pea blossoms,
Not yet the flaky roses,
Red or white as snow;
I like the chaliced lilies,
The heavy Eastern lilies,
The gorgeous tiger-lilies,
That in our garden grow.
Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Source: Tiger Lilies (st. 1)
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And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these.
Author: Bible
Source: Matthew (ch. VII, v. 28-29)
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And lilies are still lilies, pulled
By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: Aurora Leigh (bk. III)
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. . . Purple lilies Dante blew
To a larger bubble with his prophet breath.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: Aurora Leigh (bk. VII)
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And lilies white, prepared to touch
The whitest thought, nor soil it much,
Of dreamer turned to lover.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: A Flower in a Letter
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Very whitely still
The lilies of our lives may reassure
Their blossoms from their roots, accessible
Alone to heavenly dews that drop not fewer;
Growing straight out of man's reach, on the hill.
God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese
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I wish I were the lily's leaf
To fade upon that bosom warm,
Content to wither, pale and brief,
The trophy of thy paler form.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese
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And the stately lilies stand
Fair in the silvery light,
Like saintly vestals, pale in prayer;
Their pure breath sanctifies the air,
As its fragrance fills the night.
Author: Julia C.R. Dorr
Source: A Red Rose
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Yet, the great ocean hath no tone of power
Mightier to reach the soul, in thought's hushed hour,
Than yours, ye Lilies! chosen thus and graced!
Author: Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans
Source: Sonnet--The Lilies of the Field
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The lily is all in white, like a saint,
And so is no mate for me.
Author: Thomas Hood
Source: Flowers
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We are Lilies fair,
The flower of virgin light;
Nature held us forth, and said,
"Lo! my thoughts of white."
- Leigh Hunt (James Henry Leigh Hunt),
Author: Leigh Hunt (James Henry Leigh Hunt)
Source: Songs and Chorus of the Flowers--Lilies
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O lovely lily clean,
O lily springing green,
O lily bursting white,
Dear lily of delight,
Spring in my heart agen
That I may flower to men.
Author: John Masefield
Source: Everlasting Mercy (last stanza)
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"Look to the lilies how they grow!"
'Twas thus the Saviour said, that we,
Even in the simplest flowers that blow,
God's ever-watchful care might see.
Author: David Macbeth Moir
Source: Lilies
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For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: Pastorals--Autumn (l. 26)
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Gracious as sunshine, sweet as dew
Shut in a lily's golden core.
Author: Margaret J. Preston
Source: Agnes
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Is not this lily pure?
What fuller can procure
A white so perfect, spotless clear
As in this flower doth appear?
Author: Francis Quarles
Source: The School of the Heart--Ode XXX (st. 4)
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Cytherea,
How bravely thou becom'st thy bed, fresh lily,
And whiter than the sheets!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Cymbeline (Iachimo at II, ii)
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Like the lily
That once was mistress of the field and flourished,
I'll hang my head and perish.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Katherine at III, i)
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And the wand-like lily which lifted up,
As a Maenad, its moonlight-coloured cup,
Till the fiery star, which is its eye,
Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky.
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Source: The Sensitive Plant (pt. I)
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"Thou wert not, Solomon! in all thy glory
Array'd," the lilies cry, "in robes like ours;
How vain your grandeur! Ah, how transitory
Are human flowers!"
Author: Horace (Horatio) Smith
Source: Hymn to the Flowers (st. 10)
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But who will watch my lilies,
When their blossoms open white?
By day the sun shall be sentry,
And the moon and the stars by night!
Author: Bayard Taylor
Source: The Poets' Journal--The Garden of Roses (st. 14)
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But lilies, stolen from grassy mold,
No more curled state unfold,
Translated to a vase of gold;
In burning throne though they keep still
Serenities unthawed and chill.
Author: Francis Thompson
Source: Gilded Gold (st. 1)
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Yet in that bulb, those sapless scales,
The lily wraps her silver vest,
Till vernal suns and vernal gales
Shall kiss once more her fragrant breast.
Author: Mrs. Mary Tighe
Source: The Lily
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