The Lily. May, 1809. Mary Tighe (née Blachford) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Tighe, Mary, 1772-1810. Psyche, With Other Poems. London Printed for LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW 1811 pp. 303-305. 314p.

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The Lily . May , 1809. How withered , perished seems the form Of yon obscure unsightly root ! Yet from the blight of wintry storm , It hides secure the precious fruit . The careless eye can find no grace , No beauty in the scaly folds , Nor see within the dark embrace What latent loveliness it holds . 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 . Yes , hide beneath the mouldering heap The undelighting slighted thing ; There in the cold earth buried deep , In silence let it wait the spring . Oh ! many a stormy night shall close In gloom upon the barren earth , While still , in undisturbed repose , Uninjured lies the future birth ; And Ignorance , with sceptic eye , Hope's patient smile shall wondering view ; Or mock her fond credulity , As her soft tears the spot bedew . Sweet smile of hope , delicious tear ! The sun , the shower indeed shall come ; The promised verdant shoot appear , And nature bid her blossoms bloom . And thou , O virgin Queen of Spring ! Shalt , from thy dark and lowly bed , Bursting thy green sheath's silken string , Unveil thy charms , and perfume shed ; Unfold thy robes of purest white , Unsullied from their darksome grave , And thy soft petals silvery light In the mild breeze unfettered wave . So Faith shall seek the lowly dust Where humble Sorrow loves to lie , And bid her thus her hopes entrust , And watch with patient , cheerful eye ; And bear the long , cold , wintry night , And bear her own degraded doom , And wait till Heaven's reviving light , Eternal Spring ! shall burst the gloom .