Come to think of it, perhaps apart from the whole romantic German gothic vibe of the1780s to the 1840s, which may be hoped to strike a chord in us all, I was probably subconsciously influenced by it's splendid English practitioner, my exquisite Beddoes, author of Death's Jest-Book. Think of a less cheerful Andersen gone to poetry with extra-added morbidity...
Yet your vote makes it the choice I shall submit to Ragnar once he's back online.
IF thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then sleep, dear, sleep;
And not a sorrow
Hang any tear on your eyelashes;
Lie still and deep,
Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes
The rim o' the sun to-morrow,
In eastern sky.
But wilt thou cure thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then die, dear, die;
'Tis deeper, sweeter,
Than on a rose-bank to lie dreaming
With folded eye;
And there alone, amid the beaming
Of Love's stars, thou'lt meet her
In eastern sky.
Claverhouse
