Apparently, snow white was to much of a cliché even then.

For a metric translation, which I didn't attempt, goblets may work better.

I'm not sure I understand the question. You know Schmalz is lard, shortening, etc., so literally it's 'white as lard,' right? Though in a translation, something like 'tallow' might be a little more attractive.

There seem to be several other harder spots in the lines you quote. But I don't know the poem, sorry, so hopefully you have some context for the cloud of flowers bzw. flower-like cloud (?), the pond-crater (?), the stick (?), and the bell (?).

In any case, the waxen angel could be the same color as the white cups. And dark-red spots on the white chalices could be Christian imagery.

But I can't even find a verb to say what the speaker would do with the stick (?); I don't see how the syntax even hangs together.

Sorry, perhaps the native speakers will be able to help.

*f5*

Sorry, I also didn't see that someone had answered in the meantime. The chalices are plural, so they're also the bells -- the shapes of the children? Hmm ...

If only I had a stick (to draw one of the water lilies ashore)

(Had I only/but a stick would have been acceptable in the nineteenth century, I think.)

But cf.
Er ist mein Stecken und mein Stab
(thy rod and thy staff they comfort me - Psalm 23)

The theme of the poem seems to be: how can we children (humans) get nearer to divinity?

Thanks. There's so much Westphalian dialect in her poems that I wondered if this could have been a local or rustic expression. I'll leave it at "tallow-white" (better than "lard-white," which I had).

The general sense, of course, is that the flowers float on the pond looking cloud-like. Think Monet. I've translated "Kolke" as cove, though that's just a guess. I'll post a separate query for "Stecken."

Für "Kolk" hat LEO "pothole".

Kolk
b. in Vertiefungen stehendes braun gefärbtes Wasser (in Hochmooren)

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Kolk

A little pond that has formed in a natural depression, really.