The lily has long been associated in with death (in both eastern and western culture) and was a popular metaphor with John Keats, a poet Beckett particularly admired. "I like him best of them all," he told MacGreevey – The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett, p 297. A comparison of La Belle Dame Sans Merci [1] – written while he was dying of tuberculosis – with Words and Music is certainly worthwhile.[2] The flower has also been said to symbolise purity and innocence and, as such, is often associated with the Virgin Mary and resurrection and, by extension, motherhood in general and fertility. The flower became especially popular with artists after Freud provided a sexual interpretation of its form that added new levels of meaning to depictions of it (Freud, S., Symbolism in Dreams, pp 163,164).
The lily has long been associated in with death (in both eastern and western culture) and was a popular metaphor with John Keats, a poet Beckett particularly admired. "I like him best of them all," he told MacGreevey – The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett, p 297. A comparison of La Belle Dame Sans Merci [1] – written while he was dying of tuberculosis – with Words and Music is certainly worthwhile.[2] The flower has also been said to symbolise purity and innocence and, as such, is often associated with the Virgin Mary and resurrection and, by extension, motherhood in general and fertility. The flower became especially popular with artists after Freud provided a sexual interpretation of its form that added new levels of meaning to depictions of it (Freud, S., Symbolism in Dreams, pp 163,164).
Beckett, S., Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 134 Commentators avoid saying what they believe "the wellhead" to be but considering the definition of the word, there is little doubt Beckett is referring to the vulva, the gateway to the womb from where all life springs. (Compare Leonard Cohen's song, Light as The Breeze[3])
