Woeful Victory

(Lizzie Siddall, the Pre-Raphaelite artist's model, has just married Dante Gabriel Rossetti ... and now regrets it.) Why could it not have been agreeable? What steered me down this unforgiving cleft? Was this misfortune not foreseeable? Why can I find no crumb of comfort left? I longed to find a lover, thoughtful, kind, a husband who, attentive, understands: but now the day has dawned (alas!), I find my triumph turns to water in my hands. At last I comprehend what Paris meant: each absence was his chance to play me false. If I object, he terms it “harrassment”. I’ve danced alone in sharp embarrassment, and now I find I’m weary of the waltz: I’m keeping time, but hope the music halts.