Page:In memoriam (IA inmemoriam00tennrich).pdf/152



tasted love with half his mind, Nor ever drank the inviolate spring Where nighest heaven, who first could fling This bitter seed among mankind;

That could the dead, whose dying eyes Were closed with wail, resume their life, They would but find in child and wife An iron welcome when they rise:

'Twas well, indeed, when warm with wine, To pledge them with a kindly tear: To talk them o'er, to wish them here, To count their memories half divine;

But if they came who past away, Behold their brides in other hands: The hard heir strides about their lands, And will not yield them for a day.