For the names and persons in the following poem, see the 
      "History of the renowned Prince Arthur and his Knights of the 
      Round Table;" for the rest the Author is answerable; only it may 
      be proper to add, that the Lotus, with the bust of the Goddess 
      appearing to rise out of the full-blown flower, was suggested by 
      the beautiful work of ancient art, once included among the Townley 
      Marbles, and now in the British Museum.
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        In addition to the short notice prefixed to this poem it may be 
      worth while here to say that it rose out of a few words casually 
      used in conversation by my nephew Henry Hutchinson. He was 
      describing with great spirit the appearance and movement of a 
      vessel which he seemed to admire more than any other he had ever 
      seen, and said her name was the "Water Lily." This plant has been 
      my delight from my boyhood, as I have seen it floating on the 
      lake; and that conversation put me upon constructing and composing 
      the poem. Had I not heard those words it would never have been 
      written. The form of the stanza is new, and is nothing but a 
      repetition of the first five lines as they were thrown off, and is 
      not perhaps well suited to narrative, and certainly would not have 
      been trusted to had I thought at the beginning that the poem would 
      have gone to such a length.