Cohen's mistresses, in fact, have all been had. Implicit in this action, more than in her nudity, is her sexual experience with the poet-lover. Will you come into my life with your sorrow and your black carriages and your perfect memory. Then she is respectfully buried. However, unlike the historical Queen Victoria, most of Cohen's Mistress-muses are merely mortal, and so must eventually fail.
Age causes the muse to fail to stimulate the poet.
Her body tells her everything. She is a prisoner of truth. Even in her absence, the Mistress-muse can be of service. Her physical beauty is evoked, its passing lamented. Now that she's gone.