Behold the lilies of the field,
They toil not neither do they spin;
(So doth the ancient text begin)
In these lines, the speaker is quoting a passage from the Bible. In this passage, Jesus is addressing his followers and telling them not to worry or be anxious about having enough food or clothing. The lilies are beautiful, Jesus teaches, without toiling or spinning, because God provides for them. The main message of these lines in the context of the Bible is not to be worried or anxious about material goods and instead to have faith. The poem puts a cynical twist on this quote, however, because, at the end of Stanza 8, the flowers die: "the lilies sickened unto death" (109). Perhaps the speaker is trying to suggest in these lines that God has forsaken Jenny because of her lack of morality, which means that the divine gifts that he would have given her are meant to wilt away. Another reading of these lines suggests that the speaker does not believe that God has lost the power to provide for humanity in modernity—the "days of hankering breath"—which is why Jenny must now fend for herself (108).
Just as another woman sleeps!
This line comes from the middle of the poem, right before the speaker begins to compare Jenny to his cousin Nell. He is surprised at the fact that Jenny's sleep is so similar to that of "another woman," because, due to her profession, Jenny is not like just any woman. In this way, this line speaks to the fact that Jenny is intrinsically different from most other women because of her lack of morality. This difference has changed something fundamental within Jenny, which in turn makes it ironic that she sleeps just as any other normal person would. The exclamation at the end of this line suggests a feeling of disbelief and emphasizes the ironic tone. While asleep, she shows no sign of her life as a prostitute. The speaker cannot believe his eyes. This is just one example of many in which the speaker compares Jenny's looks and character to those of innocent, pure women. It's almost like Jenny's profession has caused a terrible deformity that the speaker is surprised to note her can no longer see.
Like a rose shut in a book
In which pure women may not look,
For its base pages claim control
To crush the flower within the soul
Where through each dead rose-leaf that clings,
Pale as transparent psyche-wings,
To the vile text
In these lines, the speaker imagines Jenny as a helpless rose that is "shut in a book." The "book" is Jenny's profession as a prostitute, from which she cannot escape. Her fate is to be stuck in this book forever—a book so vile that "pure women may not look" at it. Pure women cannot read this book because it will corrupt them, just as it has corrupted Jenny. This image is a threatening one, because a rose that is shut in a book has been cut off of its bush and is dead. In other words, Jenny's profession does not lead to bounty or life; instead, it leads to imprisonment and death. The "base pages" of this book hold a lot of power over "the flower within the soul" because every soul that comes into contact with it "clings" to the "vile text" and is forever marred by that contact.
