Re: Alexandria: Dorian & Claire
"Ah, but you do think they saw weird things," she retorted with a grin, self-satisfied and slightly teasing. "You're probably right. I think opium may have been a poor choice for coping in that situation. It certainly couldn't have helped." Claire smirked playfully up at him before turning her attention down to the book of poems and gingerly took it from his hand. The worn knit gloves roamed over the cover with a reverence for how he felt about the book. "I never read much poetry," she admitted quietly, flipping through pages until she reached a place she felt she should stop. Her finger followed the lines as she read one of the stanzas of one of the epic poems.
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start, for soul is wanting there. Hers is the loveliness in death, That parts not quite with parting breath; But beauty with that fearful bloom, That hue which haunts it to the tomb, Expression's last receding ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of Feeling pass'd away! Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth, Which gleams, but warms no more its cherish'd earth!
Claire paused a moment, her finger lingering at the line break as though she were afraid of going any further, and then closed the book of poems. "What makes this book your favorite, if that book is the one you've read the most?" Yes, she was nosy, but she always had a healthy curiosity of how other people thought and lived.