Congratulations for accepting my challenge!  This is a little wordy in 
places, but I am glad to see you dealing with human beings instead of the 
cosmos.  Sue

<< 
 
 Claire Clairmont And Allegra
 
 It is not true to say that her soul was withered 
 within her by the death of her five-year-old child,
 though she said herself she had never again smiled
 absolutely; without happiness she could still be happy.
 
 Far from familiar scenes she stepped on strange stairs
 to her room´s cold and lonely austerity.
 But she often remarked, those whom posterity
 had honoured with greatness were numbered among her friends,
 
 though her passage through life had been solitary.
 And when she died, in a country remote from her
 daughter´s grave, the shawl, her lover´s last gift to her
 sixty years earlier, was laid in the coffin.
 
 When violet evening clouds were edged with orange,
 reflected in still water, she watched the day´s slow wane.
 And though this scene could not remove her pain,
 she never tried to believe that her loss negated its beauty. >>