The Lotus

Love came to Flora asking for a flower

That would of flowers be undisputed queen,

The lily and the rose, long, long had been

Rivals for that high honour. Bards of power

Had sung their claims. "The rose can never tower

Like the pale lily with her Juno mien"--

"But is the lily lovelier?" Thus between

Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyche's bower.

"Give me a flower delicious as the rose

And stately as the lily in her pride"--

"But of what colour?"--"Rose-red," Love first chose,

Then prayed,--"No, lily-white,--or, both provide;"

And Flora gave the lotus, "rose-red" dyed,

And "lily-white,"--the queenliest flower that blows.

By: Toru Dutt

Toru Dutt (March 4, 1856 – August 30, 1877) was an Indian poetess who wrote in English and French. After publication of several translations and literary discussions, she published A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, a volume of French poems she had translated into English, with Saptahiksambad Press of Bhowanipore, India in 1876. Eight of the poems had been translated by her elder sister Aru. This volume came to the attention of Edmund Gosse in 1877, who reviewed it quite favorably in the Examiner that year. Sheaf would see a second Indian edition in 1878 and a third edition by Kegan Paul of London in 1880, but Dutt lived to see neither of these triumphs. She wrote many poems for the rank and the file.