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# The Lily and the Red Red Rose
- URL: https://www.ontheshoreline.com/the-lily-and-the-red-red-rose/
- Published: 2025-11-05T13:14:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-20T13:14:37.000Z
- Description: A poem
- Author: Dido Walker
- Tags: Poetry

My thorns prick the flesh of men  
My blood red beauty oft wounds them  
My petals feel like softest silk  
With fragrance of the sweetest ilk  
Symbol of the greatest thing   
Love's energy and quickening  
The pollen paints my lily white   
& stops the singing bees in flight   
Valley winds carry my scent   
I'm there at marriage sacrament  
In times of death and sad regret   
My open face men can't forget  
Poets write of how rose wove  
A bower for lovers in the grove   
Passion that so many drove   
To depths of pain and heights of love   
And in life's hilly altitudes   
My rosy scent for aye exudes.  
A bouquet of my starry white   
Is like the galaxy of light  
In lover's hands on wedding night:  
And As the hands of time do move  
They symbolise e'er lasting love.  
When rose and lily are together  
They symbolise both pain and pleasure   
Earth's garden is a lasting treasure   
For loving minds beyond all measure   
When glad hearts pluck flowers like these  
They breathe in love's eternities

![](https://www.ontheshoreline.com/content/images/2025/12/1000024426-1.jpg)

*This poem is inspired by my gratitude for my confirmation by Bishop Ruth Bushyager. This was apt as this is the era of women priesthood : and it reminded me afresh me that the church is called "The bride of Christ". I now feel fully part of that marriage feast and the celebration of the sacrament of love in all its fulness that it represents .*