THE THREE STUDENTS.
There came three students from over the Rhine,
To a certain good hostel they turned them for wine.
Ho! Landlady, have you strong wine and beer?
How fareth the Fraulein, your daughter dear?
My beer is fresh, and my wine is bright;
My child will be shrouded and buried to-night.
They drew the door of her death-room back,
There slumbered she in her coffin black:—
The first he lifted the veil from the dead,
And bared his curls, and bended, and said,
“Ah! could'st thou but live again, maiden, here
From this day forth I would love thee dear!”
The second spread softly the face-cloth again,
And his tears fell fast as the midsummer rain:
“Dead! art thou, Lisbeth? cold, lip and brow?
Ah God! I learn how I loved thee now!”
But the third in his hand did the little hand take,
And kissed the white forehead, and smiled and spake,
“I love thee to-day as I loved thee before,
I shall love thee as truly for evermore.”
