Uhland's "Three Cavaliers"
There were three cavaliers that went over the Rhine,And gayly they called to the hostess for wine."And where is thy daughter? We would she were here,--Go fetch us that maiden to gladden our cheer!"
"I'll fetch thee thy goblets full foaming," she said,"But in yon darkened chamber the maiden lies dead."And lo! as they stood in the doorway, the whiteOf a shroud and a dead shrunken face met their sight.
Then the first cavalier breathed a pitiful sigh,And the throb of his heart seemed to melt in his eye,And he cried, "Hadst thou lived, O my pretty white rose,I ween I had loved thee and wed thee--who knows?"
The next cavalier drew aside a small space,And stood to the wall with his hands to his face;And this was the heart-cry that came with his tears:"I loved her, I loved her these many long years!"
But the third cavalier kneeled him down in that place,And, as it were holy, he kissed that dead face:"I loved thee long years, and I love thee to-day,And I'll love thee, dear maiden, forever and aye!"
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
- hostess n.
- A female host; a woman who hospitably entertains guests at her house. [OE. hostesse, ostesse. See Host a landlord.]
- gladden v. t.
- To make glad; to cheer; to please; to gratify; to rejoice; to exhilarate. [See Glad, v. t.]
- doorway n.
- The passage of a door; entrance way into a house or a room.
- cavalier n.
- A military man serving on horseback; a knight. [F. cavalier, It. cavaliere, LL. caballarius, fr. L. caballus. See Cavalcade, and cf. Cavallier, Caballine.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Uhland's "Three Cavaliers" is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Uhland's "Three Cavaliers", in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/uhland-s-three-cavaliers.html, id L24651.
Form and metre
Uhland's "Three Cavaliers" is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB rhineA · wineA · hereB · cheerB
- 2 AABB saidA · deadA · whiteB · sightB
- 3 AABB sighA · eyeA · roseB · knowsB
- 4 AABB spaceA · faceA · tearsB · yearsB
- 5 AA-- placeA · faceA · day · aye
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There were three cavaliers that went over the Rhine, | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| And gayly they called to the hostess for wine. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| "And where is thy daughter? We would she were here,-- | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Go fetch us that maiden to gladden our cheer!" | 11 | ····/˘·/˘/· |
| "I'll fetch thee thy goblets full foaming," she said, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| "But in yon darkened chamber the maiden lies dead." | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| And lo! as they stood in the doorway, the white | 11 | ·······/··· |
| Of a shroud and a dead shrunken face met their sight. | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| Then the first cavalier breathed a pitiful sigh, | 11 | ···/˘˘··/˘· |
| And the throb of his heart seemed to melt in his eye, | 12 | ············ |
| And he cried, "Hadst thou lived, O my pretty white rose, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| I ween I had loved thee and wed thee--who knows?" | 11 | ··········· |
| The next cavalier drew aside a small space, | 11 | ··/˘˘·˘/··· |
| And stood to the wall with his hands to his face; | 11 | ··········· |
| And this was the heart-cry that came with his tears: | 11 | ··········· |
| "I loved her, I loved her these many long years!" | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| But the third cavalier kneeled him down in that place, | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| And, as it were holy, he kissed that dead face: | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| "I loved thee long years, and I love thee to-day, | 11 | ··········· |
| And I'll love thee, dear maiden, forever and aye!" | 12 | ·····/˘˘/˘·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.