The tones of Mario caused the Empress to see her early home; and the chief character in the poem to see his first love, and to even smell the flower he had seen her wear.
Meanwhile, I was thinking of my first love,
As I had not been thinking of aught for years,
Till over my eyes there began to move
Something that felt like tears.
. . . . . . . . . .
For I thought of her grave below the hill,
Which the sentinel cypress tree stands over,
And I thought,—“Were she only living still,
How I could forgive her and love her!”