Are you shaken, are you stirred
By a whisper of love,
Spellbound to a word
Does Time cease to move,
Till her calm grey eye
Expands to a sky
And the clouds of her hair
Like storms go by?
Then the lips that you have kissed
Turn to frost and fire,
And a white-steaming mist
Obscures desire:
So back to their birth
Fade water, air, earth,
And the First Power moves
Over void and dearth.
Is that Love? no, but Death,
After a couple breaks up, it often seems like life has become drear and faded. Graves says that water air and earth fade back to their birth, or, in other words, that the basic elements of life turn back to their simplest state and everything is has faded.