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The Lily.
May, 1809.
1 How withered, perished seems the form
2 Of yon obscure unsightly root!
3 Yet from the blight of wintry storm,
4 It hides secure the precious fruit.
5 The careless eye can find no grace,
6 No beauty in the scaly folds,
7 Nor see within the dark embrace
8 What latent loveliness it holds.
9 Yet in that bulb, those sapless scales,
10 The lily wraps her silver vest,
11 'Till vernal suns and vernal gales
12 Shall kiss once more her fragrant breast.
13 Yes, hide beneath the mouldering heap
14 The undelighting slighted thing;
15 There in the cold earth buried deep,
16 In silence let it wait the spring.
17 Oh! many a stormy night shall close
18 In gloom upon the barren earth,
19 While still, in undisturbed repose,
20 Uninjured lies the future birth;
21 And Ignorance, with sceptic eye,
22 Hope's patient smile shall wondering view;
23 Or mock her fond credulity,
24 As her soft tears the spot bedew.
25 Sweet smile of hope, delicious tear!
26 The sun, the shower indeed shall come;
27 The promised verdant shoot appear,
28 And nature bid her blossoms bloom.
29 And thou, O virgin Queen of Spring!
30 Shalt, from thy dark and lowly bed,
31 Bursting thy green sheath's silken string,
32 Unveil thy charms, and perfume shed;
33 Unfold thy robes of purest white,
34 Unsullied from their darksome grave,
35 And thy soft petals silvery light
36 In the mild breeze unfettered wave.
37 So Faith shall seek the lowly dust
38 Where humble Sorrow loves to lie,
39 And bid her thus her hopes entrust,
40 And watch with patient, cheerful eye;
41 And bear the long, cold, wintry night,
42 And bear her own degraded doom,
43 And wait till Heaven's reviving light,
44 Eternal Spring! shall burst the gloom.
About this text
Author: Mary Tighe (née Blachford)
Themes:
Genres:
narrative verse
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Tighe, Mary, 1772-1810. Psyche, With Other Poems. London: Printed for LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW, 1811, pp. 303-305. 314p. (Page images digitized from a copy at University of California Libraries.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Mary Tighe (née Blachford)
- Address to My Harp. ()
- Addressed to My Brother. 1805. ()
- Bryan Byrne, of Glenmalure. ()
- A Faithful Friend is the Medicine of Life. SON OF SIRACH. ()
- Hagar in the Desert. ()
- Imitated from Jeremiah. — Chap: xxxi. v. 15. ()
- Morning. ()
- On Leaving Killarney. August 5, 1800. ()
- On Receiving a Branch of Mezereon Which Flowered at Woodstock. DECEMBER, 1809. ()
- The Picture. WRITTEN FOR ANGELA. ()
- Pleasure. ()
- Psyche [Canto I.] (); [Psyche] Canto II. (); [Psyche] Canto III. (); [Psyche] Canto IV. (); [Psyche] Canto V. (); [Psyche] Canto VI. ()
- The Shawl's Petition, to Lady Asgill. ()
- Sonnet Addressed to My Mother ()
- Sonnet Written at Woodstock, in the County of Kilkenny, the Seat of William Tighe. June 30, 1809. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- Sonnet. ()
- To Death. ()
- To Fortune. ()
- To Lady Charlemont, in Return for Her Presents of Flowers ()
- To the Memory of Margaret Tighe: TAKEN FROM US JUNE 7TH, 1804. — ÆTAT 85. ()
- To Time. ()
- To W. P. Esq. Avondale. ()
- The Vartree. ()
- Verses Written at the Commencement of Spring. — 1802. ()
- Verses Written in Sickness. December, 1804. ()
- Written at Killarney. July, 20 1800. ()
- Written at Rossana. ()
- Written at Rossana. November 18, 1799. ()
- Written at Scarborough. August, 1799. ()
- Written at the Eagle's Nest, Killarney. July 26, 1800. ()
- Written at West-Aston. June, 1808. ()
- Written for Her Niece S. K. ()
- Written in a Copy of Psyche WHICH HAD BEEN IN THE LIBRARY OF C. J. FOX. April, 1809. ()
- Written in Autumn. ()
- Written in the Church-Yard at Malvern. ()