Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4757, 5 April 1884, Page 1

Select Poetry.

LIFE LILIES.

AN AIiLEGOEY. I wandered down Life's garden, In the flnsh of a golden day, ■ The flowers and thorns grew thickly In the spot where I chanced to stray. , I went to choose me a flower For life, for weal or for woe; On, on I went, till I stayed me By the spot where the lilies grow. "Yes, I will cany a lily," . . I said with my manhood's pride, " A bloodless, tiiornless lily Shall be my flower !" I cried. I stretched my hands out quickly To where the pale blossoms grew. "Was it the air that shivered ? Was it a wind that blew ? Was it my hands that scorched them ? As I touched the blossoms fair, They broke and scattered their petals On the sunny noontide air. Then I saw a great, big angel With opal-coloured wings, Where the light flashed in the feathers In golden glimmeripgs. He said, "Thou hast sinned and suffered; Lilies are not for thee, They are all for the little children, Emblems of purity." " Shall I never carry a lily ? IsTever ?" I bitterly cried. - With his great eyes full of pity, The heavenly one replied: " When the heat of the day is over; When the goal is won," he said, " Ah, then I lay God's lilies In the hands of the stainless dead I" — Ail the Year Mound.