The Poetry of Ellin Anderson

SONG OF THE LILY

Ellin Anderson
 

Rare words are graven here,
For song or fable:
A lily and a financier
Shared the same table.

Pale morning saw him pass
(Where maids ran to and fro)
The lotus and the brandy-glass
Aflame like snow.

He thought how scale and till
Might make the world serene,
As goblets hold, by earthly will,
Hands of a queen.

What light the dawn could spare
From city trove
Filled the white cup, that she might share
The reeded grove.

In light that dawn had lent
My garret room,
I dreamed of days well spent
On streams in bloom.

By cherry-laden bough,
I was June's weir,
Seeking from muddy prow
The lily clear.

Set there with plate and spoon,
My little gift
Gave gold from lakes of June:
The sweet scent's drift.

He walked away to tell
Figure and sign,
Riches a king might sell:
No coin of mine.

Long was he locked in vault
When I arose;
Through sunlight's daily fault
The lilies close.

Find and forgive me now,
Great men and grave:
In that June of laden bough,
All I had, I gave.
 

© 2009 by Ellin Anderson. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be copied or used in any way
without written permission from the author.


St. Patrick's Day
Seabrook
Tiger and Blue Jewel

Winter's Hill
Maple-Key Song
November in Camelot

Wassail Song
Veleda
Cinderella
The Rooster at Midsummer
Liberty Enlightens the People

The Leap
The Goldfinch
Three Bears
White Tree at Twilight
The Christmas Tree

Song-Sparrow
Grand Bois du Nord
The Owl
Moth Summer
Verticordia
The Little God of Joy
Pear-Petals
Photographing the Moon
A Rabbit
Rose, Do You Know
The Two Pining Bachelors
Lorelei
Persephone

Avalon
The Harvest Chorus
The Maple Mask
Ghost Cardinal

The Little Heath-Rose
Found
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Song for the Harp

The Spinner
 
The Prayer of Cephalus
Circe and Ulysses
The Black Arts
Tristan and Isolde & Jupiter's Two Casks
Nectanebus

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More Poems by Ellin Anderson

The Little Mermaid
Vermeer
Anne's Hearth