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174
THE LILY OF THE VALLEY.
Tender Lily of the vale,
Lovely, modest, sweet, and pale,
While a tear the night hath shed,
Weeping o'er thy beauteous head,
Forms the trembling diadem
Weighing down thy slender stem,
How in meekness art thou seen
Like the lowly Nazarene!
Lovely, modest, sweet, and pale,
While a tear the night hath shed,
Weeping o'er thy beauteous head,
Forms the trembling diadem
Weighing down thy slender stem,
How in meekness art thou seen
Like the lowly Nazarene!
Stooping o'er the dust beneath,
From the leaf that rose to sheathe
Thine unsullied snowy bells,
Art thou pouring from their cells,
As from pensile vials there,
Odors, rising like the prayer,
When in solemn, midnight scene
Kneeled the lonely Nazerene.
From the leaf that rose to sheathe
Thine unsullied snowy bells,
Art thou pouring from their cells,
As from pensile vials there,
Odors, rising like the prayer,
When in solemn, midnight scene
Kneeled the lonely Nazerene.
When the blast, or lightning-stroke,
Wrings the willow,—rends the oak,—
Calm, amid the raging storm,
Stands thy frail and silken form,
Fearless of the tempest's power
As a spirit, clothed, a flower,
With no earthly prop or screen,
Like the houseless Nazarene.
Wrings the willow,—rends the oak,—
Calm, amid the raging storm,
Stands thy frail and silken form,
Fearless of the tempest's power
As a spirit, clothed, a flower,
With no earthly prop or screen,
Like the houseless Nazarene.
175
He, whose sword was life and light,
Teaching on Judea's height,
Looked from that far mountain-side
Down, through field and valley wide,
For a glory there displayed,
Such as ne'er the king arrayed!—
Then, the “Lily” on the green,
Named our Lord, the Nazarene.
Teaching on Judea's height,
Looked from that far mountain-side
Down, through field and valley wide,
For a glory there displayed,
Such as ne'er the king arrayed!—
Then, the “Lily” on the green,
Named our Lord, the Nazarene.
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