Die Rose, die Lilie, is one of the few poems set by Meyerbeer which were written by Heinrich Heine. Heine was an ardent admirer of Meyerbeer's and a well known author and critic of the time. The poem has two stanzas that use a great deal of flower imagery in describing the poet's love for his beloved. The poem becomes filled with wistful pathos as the poet describes the loss of his beloved, and the passage of time. Meyerbeer introduces the song with an open accompaniment figure in the piano. The names of the flowers are sung in short bursting phrases that are followed by rests. Groups of these phrases are answered by long, lovely, lyrical phrases. One of these longer phrases makes up several of the short ones together in terms of time. The climax is the final line, set as one long roulade independent of strict time. This temporal fluctuation mirrors the temporal imagery in the poem, which is all about the passage of time as an instrument of permanent loss. The closing statement uses dramatic rubato to punctuate the poet's ruminations, as it and the poem wind the song to a close.

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