Ophelia, by John Everett Millais (1851-52) Edward Allan Poe said somewhere that there is nothing more beautiful than a dying woman. He was drastically wrong. Life on the ascendant is what we all strive for, and what we love. A beautiful face beneath the water, with a sorrow unspoken engraven on her visage … No! Rather, a bright set of eyes across a table at a cheap diner, promising something unattainable: that is what makes life worth living.