THE LANDLADY’S DAUGHTER.
[From the German of Uhland.]
There came three students over the Rhine:
Dame Werter’s house they entered in:
“Dame Werter, hast thou good beer and wine
And where’s that lovely daughter of thine?”
“My beer and my wine are fresh and clear,
My daughter is lying cold on her bier.”
They stepped within the chamber of rest,
Where shrined lay the maiden, in black robes dressed.
The first he drew from her face the veil:
“Ah! wert thou alive, thou maiden so pale,”
He said, as he gazed with saddened brow,
“How dearly would I love thee now!”
The second he covered the face anew,
And, weeping, he turned aside from the view:
“Ah me, that thou liest on the cold bier,
The one I have loved for so many a year!”
The third once more uplifted the veil:
He kissed the lips so deadly pale;
“Thee loved I ever, still love I thee,
And thee will I love through eternity.”
And that kiss—that kiss—with Promethean flame
Thrilled with new life the quivering frame;
And the maid uprose, and stood by his side,
That student’s own loved and loving bride!
