Alone in Paris at thirteen <br />changed her name to Marie Duplessis <br />a famous courtesan at eighteen <br />in an apartment on the Boulevard de la <br />Madeleine <br /> <br />Alexandre Dumas captivated <br />by her beauty – started a strange romance <br />enduring beyond her marriage to an old beau <br />lasting till her death at the age of twenty-three <br />from tuberculosis <br /> <br />She described herself as gay <br />with a gaiety sadder than grief <br />a coffin covered with camellias lowered in <br />Montmartre - and Dumas wrote <br />La Dame aux Camelias <br /> <br />Inspiring Verdi’s play La Traviata <br />giving Marie musical immortality – <br />- Dumas’ undying love is <br />sadder than the opera - why <br />could she not marry <br /> <br />her faithful love, Dumas <br />there is something wrong with life <br />but in another dimension of the multiverse <br />Marie is still alive in the arms <br />of her Dumas...<br /><br />Margaret Alice<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gaiety-sadder-than-grief/
