 | Poems and Romances |  |
265
DIE JUNGFRAU.
A holy maiden of the giant raceWho cannot live and look upon the sun,
Who count their jewellery in caverns dun
All day, but in the night they show their face,
Would not return ere morning to her place,
But said, “My little race will soon be run,
Death will be easiest when I have won
That sight, since I must die in any case.”
So the light smote her with a slaying blow
That she for very pain half turned away,
Yet on her dying cheek she felt the glow,
And as she turned to stone she knelt to pray,
Where, bowing underneath her hood of snow,
She waits in peace until the Judgment Day.
| Poems and Romances | |