Graves & Beginnings Part II

Scene 1: Henry’s Solitude

HENRY

How silent this life, in love's absence bound,

Her voice, her touch, no longer here, no sound.

Oh, Eliza, you've taken all I knew,

Left me to linger, love-torn and askew.

HENRY

If I could but hold her once more, in truth,

T o feel her warmth, to drink of her sweet youth.

Yet I am nothing—a shadow, a shade,

Lost in this love that destiny betrayed.

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AGNES

Henry, friend, your grief—won’t you let it go?

Life still awaits, with beauty you don’t know.

Why cling to love that brings naught but pain?

Find peace, dear Henry—come live again.

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HENRY

Peace, you say? How cold a word it seems,

When love, the only peace I sought, lies in dreams.

She was my light, my breath, my will to be,

Now I wander lost, for she is not with me.

AGNES

I have known love, Henry, and loss as well,

But life yet calls us, from sorrow's dark cell.

Would Eliza want you to waste away,

Withering here, fading day by day?

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HENRY

What would she care? She left me all the same,

With promises turned empty, love’s cruel game.

I gave my soul, my heart, my every breath,

Yet here I am, alone, bound close to death.

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Scene 2: Henry’s Memories

HENRY

How sweet her words, the way she used to say,

"Together, always, come night or day."

But words fade thin, as morning’s mist departs,

Leaving nothing but ache within these hollowed hearts.

HENRY

Eliza, did you never feel the same?

Was I but a page in love’s fleeting game?

You left with ease, as though we were but chance,

While I am here, lost in love’s deep trance.

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HENRY

Oh, to feel thy touch, just one last time,

T o share once more our lives' soft rhyme.

Yet I am cursed, to linger all alone,

A love like mine, never fully known.

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Scene 3: Agnes’s Last Attempt and Henry’s Resignation

AGNES

I cannot bear to watch you break this way,

Bound to a love that led you to decay.

Please, Henry, come back to life, break free,

For love that true should give, not leave you be.

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HENRY

This love is all I am, though it has slain,

For it left a wound, yet I cannot feign.

Eliza, my heart beats but in your name,

For without you, love is hollow, cold, and lame.

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Final Scene: A Silent Resolution

AGNES

Some loves are curses, a bond too strong to sever,

Yet who am I to say it should last forever?

He loved her deeply, that much is plain,

And if love be death—then let him not remain.

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Summary of Act 2:

Henry’s slow descent into heartbreak and despair, with Agnes as a symbol of the outside world trying to save him. Through his memories, Henry’s love is revealed as an all-consuming force that left him unable to live without Eliza. His end is tragic, yet he finally finds a sense of peace in his resignation. Agnes understands that Eliza never intended this pain; she simply didn’t love him with the same intensity, making both characters sympathetic in their own ways.