A grieving widower was counseled to keep a journal of his experience as a means of therapy to help him cope with the loss of his wife. The journal he started keeping became a portal into a world of poetry reflecting a new, hidden life that he and his wife shared. The wife's death was seen as a second wedding leading to a higher spiritual life. The husband's future death was seen as a third wedding leading to a yet higher spiritual life. The grieving widower finds his grief to have been in vain. From heaven, he hears a sweet and powerful refrain:
"Since that day we tasted death,
We've learned, my dear, to live again."
(134. "A Studious, Earthly Beau," lines 3-4)