The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 20, Pages 358-359
(Although undesignated, this belongs to the series: Records of Woman)
JOANNA.*[1]
"It is but dust thou look'st upon. This love,
This wild and passionate idolatry,
What doth it in the shadow of the grave?
Gather it back within thy lonely heart,
So must it ever end. Too much we give
Unto the things that perish."
The night-wind shook the tapestry round an ancient palace-room,
And torches, as it rose and fell, waved through the gorgeous gloom,
And o'er a shadowy regal couch threw fitful gleams and red,
Where a Woman with long raven hair sat watching by the dead.
- ↑
* Mother of the Emperor Charles V. Upon the death of her husband, Philip the Handsome, of Austria, who had treated her with uniform neglect, she had his body laid upon a bed of state, in a magnificent dress; and being possessed with the idea that it would revive, watched it for a length of time almost incessantly, waiting for the moment of returning life.
