Queen of flowers: rose or lily?

My cousin, 英毅, wanted me to 詩園勤耕耘.  We’ve been working hard; what we cultivate in the garden is not only the flowers and veggies, but also the mind.

Daylily has been blooming in our front yard and rose in the Rose Garden (a small section in our garden).  In order to have a “peaceful” garden, I dare not to have rose and lily stand side by side.

Within the garden’s peaceful scene

Appeared two lovely foes,

Aspiring to the rank of Queen,

The Lily and the Rose.

In November 1884, Emily thanked her aunt for a gift of “beloved lilies,” saying, “my heart is so high it overflows . . . Easter in November”.  The sacred lily is dedicated to Virgin Mary for its purity and innocence. We do not have white Easter lily in our garden, but do have crimson one (see photo) as there were in Dickinson garden in 1885.

In Act III Scene 1 of Henry VIII, we read how Cardinal Wolsey is trying to persuade Queen Katherine to agree a divorce so Henry VIII can marry his new love, Anne Boleyn, during which she said,

“I am the most unhappy woman living. . . .

No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me,

Almost no grave allowed me.  Like the lily,

That once was mistress of the field, and flourished,

I’ll hang my head and perish.”

This helps establishing lily as the “queen” of the flower.  Queen Katherine of Aragon (Henry VIII’s first wife) was the daughter of Spanish Ferdinand and Isabella, who commissioned Christopher Columbus, the rest is history and the discovery of the New World.

She sent the King a letter shortly before she died at age of 50,

“The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me . . .For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. . . . Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.  [how I wish to see you!—my translation]

It was said that Henry VIII wept on reading this letter.