Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria Majalis)
The lily of the vale, of flowers the queen,
Puts on the robe she neither sew’d nor spun.
Michael Bruce—Elegy.
White bud! that in meek beauty dost lean
Thy cloistered cheek as pale as moonlight snow,
Thou seem’st, beneath thy huge, high leaf of green,
An Eremite beneath his mountain’s brow.
George Croly—The Lily of the Valley.
And in his left he held a basket full
Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull
Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still
Than Leda’s love, and cresses from the rill.
Keats—Endymion. Bk. I. L. 155.
And the Naiad-like lily of the vale,
Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen,
Through their pavilions of tender green.
Shelley—The Sensitive Plant. Pt. I.
Where scattered wild the Lily of the Vale
Its balmy essence breathes.
Thomson—The Seasons. Spring. L. 445.
And leaves of that shy plant,
(Her flowers were shed) the lily of the vale,
That loves the ground, and from the sun withholds
Her pensive beauty; from the breeze her sweets.
Wordsworth—The Excursion. Bk. IX. L. 540.