Water Lilies

Water Lilies is a poem by the American Sara Teasdale. Here it is:

Water Lilies

If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance
Then you can return and not be afraid.

But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.

This beautiful poem is composed of two stanzas with four verses each. The second and fourth verses of each stanza rhyme. The rhyme scheme is a b c b d e f d. Water Lilies is about memories, the connection that we form when we first encounter a place of beauty, and the fading of beauty over time.