"White Lilies" [1869]
"Consider the lilles, how they grow; they toil not,
yet I say unto you Solomon in all his glory was 
not arrayed like one of these."
(Accompaniment for Organ or Melodeon.)
Words by Mattie Winfield Torrey
Music by Frederic Woodman Root [1846-1916]

Chicago, IL: ROOT & CADY, 67 Washington St.
[Source: pp. 70-71 from
"The Pacific Glee Book"]

1. Delicate tinted white blossoms,
Heavy with incense and dew
Fragile and lovely and tender,
Long I’ve been waiting for you;
Roaming thro’ meadow and moorland,
Vainly I sought you and well
Dreaming of exquisite fragrance
Hid in each fairy shaped bell.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
Lillies beautiful lillies
Blooming so sweetly for me,
Kings in their golden grandeur
Are never so fair to see.

2. Pearly hued petals uprearing
Out of the damp, marshy ground;
Vision of loveliness springing
Where litle beauty is found.
Tranced and enraptured I linger
Bound by thy magical spell
Dreaming of fays and of fairies
Hid in each white lily bell.

3. Emblem of innocrent sweetness!
Snowyhued purity thou;
Homage I cheerfully render
And to thy guilessness bow,
Might the pure thoughts thou has wakened
Ne’er be forgotten or die,
Then might the heart thou hast rifted
E’en with thy spotlessness vie.

4.Naught but the hand of our Father
Clothed thee in garment so rare,
Breathed o’r thy petals their fragrance,
Shaped thee so comely and fair,
In my fond heart thou has wakened
Feelings of blissful delight!
Ever be thou my bright emblem
Lily so spotless and white.