LiliesExplained.

Oh and some people wanna know more about the poem Contrasting Lilies. So here is a brief summary. I knew I had to do a poem for the Love Poetry Contest in my school, but inspiration never did struck me well. And when it finally did, it came in the form of a simple idea of an imperfect getting together with a perfect. The whole poem took shape in 5 mins, with the concrete overall idea being put in place from the inspiration within my mind in about 2.

The idea of lilies came about when i wanted to start the poem with, "A rose, a rose." but thought a rose being too cliche a flower. So i chose lilies and found that the starting line "lilies, oh lilies." sounded much more lament-ful than the rose one. Also, I wanted to use a flower as a metaphor for the two people in the poem, while highlighting that they are both the same flower essentially, but his inferiority complex kills him. The second line "Your words upon my lips." was drawn with inspiration from George Orwell's 1984 which had a line that went "he woke up with "Shakespeare" on his lips." or something like that. With the formalities cleared, it is time to get to the content.

The poem is about a guy who falls in love with a girl, but feels that he is inferior to her while she is perfect in everything she does, so much so that he only dares admire her from far, and never near.

The first stanza shows how he is lamenting, especially with the him going "Lilies, oh lilies,". He likes her so much that he even remembers the words she speaks. There is also the fact that he only "sees" her and never actually gets to touch/caress her. "As I awake to see the face of truth, the eyes in which I seek my solace." only showing that of looking, and not touching.

Second stanza is basically about him knowing that it is inhumanly tough to do something about his feelings of inferiority. That the world itself cant change that fact. And that the longer he takes to confess his love, the longer he will feel the pain of being inferior, the more he will realise how much he is not meant for her, the more he will feel like giving up and thus losing his feelings bit by bit as it drags on. this is seen in "the time slips pass our stream of consciousness. Our love dissipates. Petal. By petal." the petal imagery of it falling is similar to that of his feelings fading.

Third Stanza is where he subjects himself to change by forcing himself to be a perfect like her. But this is like a "fire" razing upon him, but he rather take the risk than lose the feelings. Though he is "seek[ing] heaven" in becoming perfect, he realizes the difficulty due to the fact that she is way to perfect. That his imperfect-ness (sins) would not lead him to becoming perfect (heaven), and instead of the "fire" on him for fear of losing his feelings, he is recieving more "burns" from her as a perfect individual, making him feel more inferior even when he tries.

Stanza four is pretty straight forward, in his state of desperation, he starts begins to give up, wondering if he should even try, whether there was even a fleeting chance. Compared to the first stanza of being able to see her, he now feels he can't see her, and that she, all along, never saw him.

Stanza five, he gives up and just decides to leave it to fate, hoping that a wind will blow her to him. But even at this juncture, he still feels inferior, not even daring to hope for the whole lily (her) to come to him, but just the sincerity of her as a being (the sweet pollen).

The poem closes with "Sincerly, to thee" to make it seem like this was a letter. and that even in the end of writing this, he doesnt even dare to address it to her, not daring to let her know, instead writing it to himself, which also is in a partial bid for him to remember her throughout, and not give up on her which is ironic as he had already almost given up. What is more ironic is that he says that this letter was sincere, but she never ever gets to feel his sincerity.

In all, this is a play to that of society's view. Is it so wrong for someone of a lower status class to be in love with someone of a higher order? Has sincerity been thrown away? Can one of a lower status even find himself in a confident post in society? or at least in love? One only wishes to know. I hope you've enjoyed this poem as much as I did.

n-joi