"And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou,
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie
A verier ghost than I."
The atmosphere conveyed by the author's diction in this poem is somewhat frightening and threatening. The speaker in the poem is a man who is in love with a woman who constantly rejects him, and he is bitter for that reason. He even resents her for it and believes it will be the death of him. But he says that even in death he will not leave her alone. When she is lying in another man's arms believing she is safe, he will come back and haunt her. This new man will not respond to her cries, and she will be left alone to face the words of this rejected lover. She will be terrified by his mere presence, and his words will only make it worse. However, he does not want to reveal what he will say to her in that moment for fear that it may not scare her anymore. And, he doesn't even want to threaten her anymore because it makes her less at fault for his situation. It is safe to say that the speaker both loves and hates this woman that he so desperately seeks. He loves her enough to keep going after her day after day knowing that she will never love him, but he also must hate her enough to want to haunt her after death and make her feel absolute guilt and fear.
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