The Lily Of The Valley

Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming     In the fragrant vernal days     Is the Lily of the Valley     With its soft, retiring ways.     Well, you chose this humble blossom     As the nurse's emblem flower,     Who grows more like her ideal     Every day and every hour.     Like the Lily of the Valley     In her honesty and worth,     Ah, she blooms in truth and virtue     In the quiet nooks of earth.     Tho' she stands erect in honor     When the heart of mankind bleeds,     Still she hides her own deserving     In the beauty of her deeds.     In the silence of the darkness     Where no eye may see and know,     There her footsteps shod with mercy,     And fleet kindness come and go.     Not amid the sounds of plaudits,     Nor before the garish day,     Does she shed her soul's sweet perfume,     Does she take her gentle way.     But alike her ideal flower,     With its honey-laden breath,     Still her heart blooms forth its beauty     In the valley shades of death.