The poem “The Lotus” is from Dutt’s Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882).

The poem enacts a type of fable, in which the personified figure of Love comes to Flora, the Roman goddess of flowering plants, asking her to create the most beautiful flower in the world.

After the longstanding feud between the lily and the rose is described, Love expresses a desire to have a flower that carries elements of both: “Give me a flower delicious as the rose / And stately as the lily in her pride.” When asked what color the flower should be, Love first says “Rose-red,” then qualifies this by saying “No, lily-white,—or, both provide.”

The poem ends with Flora gifting Love the lotus, a flower that has both elements of the lily’s beauty and the rose’s beauty. The poem as such reflects one instance of Toru Dutt drawing a link between European culture (and knowledge) and Indian/Asian culture.