The+Lilly+(2)


 * Notes About The Poem

1.Thorn**: Roses bear thorns as a threat to anything that could attack it. Although roses can be seen as beautiful in nature, they contradict this by presenting a harmful shield. Roses can also be symbollic of tainted nature because they appear to be pure and beautiful, yet they yeild a sharp edge.


 * 2.Threatening Horn**: A sheep is an experienced lamb that has grown its horns. Lambs are known to be pure and righteous. With experiences a lamb ages into a sheep and its fluffy wool is paralleled with horns that defend and also contradict the sheep's purity.

A lily is a flower which embodies humble purity and does not threaten as the sheep and the rose does. A lily presents its true and unstained nature.
 * 3.Lilly**: Lillies are different than roses and sheep. In the OED it states that a lily is "Applied to persons or things of exceptional whiteness, fairness, or purity" (www.oed.com)


 * 4.Stain her beauty**: The lilly possesses nothing that taints its innocence. It is not a flower of experience like the rose, but it is a flower that retains its purity through its whiteness and its simplistic humble exterior.