Classic Poem

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 she slept in her coffin black: —

The first he lifted the veil from the dead,
And bared his curls, and bended, and said,

" Ah! couldst 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. "