"I wither slowly in thine arms," he read.
But in another sense, she told her fellow physiotherapists, there was the prospect of it "sleepwalking into obscurity" and of allowing the profession to "wither and die".
Sinn Féin, having allowed the IRA to wither away and memories of the Troubles to fade, has stolen the party's clothes in a dramatic act of political cross-dressing.
Hundreds of thousands of cicada larvae will not only have devastated the plants' roots, but the adult insects will also transmit a fatal micro-bacterium that will make the plants slowly wither and die.
So would faith schools wither away if a Liberal Democrat government swept to power and implemented these policies?
An Arab dentist in an Israeli hospital sees his hopes of coexistence wither, as the conflict that was largely about territory turns religious.
Mr Cameron and his cronies, they grumble, possess the mores of a metropolitan elite, ignore MPs' views and allow the party's grassroots to wither.
Donor fatigue and the extremity of the country's poverty are now causing those hopes to wither.
The less popular categories, eg, religion, will be left to wither.
The glare of sunlight on the political process, as Mr Hatoyama will attempt with cabinet-led government, might wither Mr Ozawa's dark powers.
Parents have lost jobs, and seen their savings wither.
