No muse suggests the pity of my case / each pen doth overpass my just complaint
-- Rosamund (Lines 22 – 23)

Importance: Rosamund here introduces the framing conceit of the poem. She argues that her story has been forgotten or mistold. As such, she cannot pass on to heaven, but remains in a kind of purgatory, waiting forever to be passed on to the shores beyond. This quote expresses the poem's complex ideology about what happens after death, and reiterates the power of poetry to work change on a magical level.

Such power she hath by whom thy youth is led / to joy the living, and to bless the dead
-- Rosamund (Lines 48 – 49)

Importance: One of the poem's most important characters is described in these words. Though Delia – the eponym for Daniel's patron, Mary Sidney – does not appear in the poem's story, she is a critical part of its framing narrative. Delia is credited with having the power to bring peace...