“The Lilies” (by Lord Byron)– An Analysis

I send the lilies given to me;

Though long before thy hand they touch,

I know that they must withered be,

But yet reject them not as such;

For I have cherished them as well,

Because they yet may meet thine eye,

And guide thy soul to mine even here,

When thou hold’st  them drooping nigh,

And know’st them gathered by the Rhine,

And offered from my heart to thine. #

Analysis of the Romantic Vision of the Poem:

“The Lilies” communicates the picture of a lover  sending lilies to his loved one along with the expectation that, even if the flowers would no longer be fresh  (”they must withered be”) , the loved one would still accept them. Two reasons are offered by the lover  behind his beloved’s acceptance: the lilies “are gathered by the Rhine” and they are “offered from (his) heart.” The place Rhine  must be special to the lovers , and this feature extends to the flowers. More important, it seems, is the intention behind the sending of the lilies: as heart’s offering.

Briefly, the poem raises the vision of a beloved’s acceptance of an offering, despite the offering’s lacking  freshness. Here,  the romantic predilection may be worded in terms of not so much the gift being valued for what it is, but for its  being a reminder of the sender.

The voice or tone of the poem derives from the persona’s attitude toward the act of sending the lilies– a tone that is humbly expectant of kind or understanding reception.###