"The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover."

“And all my days are trances,And all my nightly dreamsAre where thy grey eye glances,And where thy footstep gleams — In what ethereal dances,By what eternal streams.”

“Thou wast that all to me, love, For which my soul did pine — A green isle in the sea, love,A fountain and a shrine,All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,And all the flowers were mine.”

“Vastness! and Age! and Memories of Eld!Silence! and Desolation! and dim Night!I feel ye now — I feel ye in your strength.”

“Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! — An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young — A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.”

“If I could dwellWhere IsrafelHath dwelt, and he where I,He might not sing so wildly wellA mortal melody,While a bolder note than this might swellFrom my lyre within the sky.”

“Yes, Heaven is thine; but thisIs a world of sweets and sours;Our flowers are merely—flowers.”