_Here is suggested the fourth stage: Wakefulness_.

Such daytime labours doubtless ease the ache
Which doubly hurts her in the helpless dark;
With news from me a keener joy to wake,
Stand by her window in the night, and mark
My sleepless darling on her pallet hard and stark.

XXVI

_Here is suggested the fifth stage: Emaciation_.

Resting one side upon that widowed bed,
Like the slender moon upon the Eastern height,
So slender she, now worn with anguish dread,
Passing with stifling tears the long, sad night
Which, spent in love with me, seemed but a moment's flight.

XXVII

_Here is suggested the sixth stage: Loss of
Interest in Ordinary Pleasures_.

On the cool, sweet moon that through the lattice flashes
She looks with the old delight, then turns away
And veils her eyes with water-weighted lashes,
Sad as the flower that blooms in sunlight gay,
But cannot wake nor slumber on a cloudy day.

XXVIII

_Here is suggested the seventh stage: Loss of
Youthful Bashfulness_.

One unanointed curl still frets her cheek
When tossed by sighs that burn her blossom-lip;
And still she yearns, and still her yearnings seek
That we might be united though in sleep--
Ah! Happy dreams come not to brides that ever weep.

XXIX

_Here is suggested the eighth stage: Absent-mindedness.
For if she were not absent-minded,
she would arrange the braid so
as not to be annoyed by it_.

Her single tight-bound braid she pushes oft--
With a hand uncared for in her lonely madness--
So rough it seems, from the cheek that is so soft:
That braid ungarlanded since the first day's sadness,
Which I shall loose again when troubles end in gladness.

XXX

_Here is suggested the ninth stage: Prostration.
The tenth stage, Death, is not suggested_.

The delicate body, weak and suffering,
Quite unadorned and tossing to and fro
In oft-renewing wretchedness, will wring
Even from thee a raindrop-tear, I know--
Soft breasts like thine are pitiful to others' woe.

XXXI

I know her bosom full of love for me,
And therefore fancy how her soul doth grieve
In this our first divorce; it cannot be
Self-flattery that idle boastings weave--
Soon shalt thou see it all, and seeing, shalt believe.

XXXII

_Quivering of the eyelids_

Her hanging hair prevents the twinkling shine
Of fawn-eyes that forget t