This poem was written in response to a memorial plaque to Jane Austen in Winchester Cathedral, England. The speaker references two lines from the memorial in the poem: “benevolence of heart” and “the extraordinary endowments of her mind” (Lines 21, 22). The memorial stands as an immortalization and, conversely, an oversimplification of Austen’s contribution to English literature. The poem is the speaker’s effort to process and reflect on what the memorial represents.