Tho’ if an eye that’s downward cast
Could make thee somewhat blench or fail,
Then be my love an idle tale,

And fading legend of the past;


And thou, as one that once declined,
When he was little more than boy,
On some unworthy heart with joy,
But lives to wed an equal mind;


And breathes a novel world, the while
His other passion wholly dies,
Or in the light of deeper eyes
Is matter for a flying smile.

I can and have imagined that if my daughter is alive in God, she will not love me less but more, although that love would no longer be exclusive as family love always is in this world. Beatrice loves Dante but she loves God the more and is therefore able to love Dante wisely. Tennyson sees heaven as a kind of superior continuation of earth.