The Water Lily

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



A lonely young wife
In her dreaming discerns
A lily-decked pool
With a border of ferns,
And a beautiful child,
With butterfly wings,
Trips down to the edge of the water and sings:
‘Come, mamma! come!
‘Quick! follow me—
‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’
And the lonely young wife,
Her heart beating wild,
Cries, ‘Wait till I come,
‘Till I reach you, my child!’
But the beautiful child
With butterfly wings
Steps out on the leaves of the lily and sings:
‘Come, mamma! come!
‘Quick! follow me!
‘And step on the leaves of the water-lily!

And the wife in her dreaming
Steps out on the stream,
But the lily leaves sink
And she wakes from her dream.
Ah, the waking is sad,
For the tears that it brings,
And she knows ’tis her dead baby’s spirit that sings:
‘Come, mamma! come!
‘Quick! follow me!
‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 19, 2023

48 sec read
161

Quick analysis:

Scheme abxbcDdEFFaceccDdEFf xgxgxddEFF
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 857
Words 160
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 20, 10

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson 17 June 1867 - 2 September 1922 was an Australian writer and poet Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period more…

All Henry Lawson poems | Henry Lawson Books

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    "The Water Lily" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18137/the-water-lily>.

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A A turn
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    C Dithyramb
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