A happy lover who has come To look on her that loves him well, Who 'lights and rings the gateway bell, And learns her gone and far from home;
He saddens, all the magic light Dies off at once from bower and hall, And all the place is dark, and all The chambers emptied of delight:
So find I every pleasant spot In which we two were wont to meet, The field, the chamber, and the street, For all is dark where thou art not.
Yet as that other, wandering there In those deserted walks, may find A flower beat with rain and wind, Which once she foster'd up with care;
So seems it in my deep regret, O my forsaken heart, with thee And this poor flower of poesy Which little cared for fades not yet.
But since it pleased a vanish'd eye, I go to plant it on his tomb, That if it can it there may bloom, Or, dying, there at least may die.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H., Canto VIII